U.S. officials scour 7 states for exotic pets

Investigators in seven U.S. states spent Tuesday trying to track down owners of pets distributed by an exotic pet shop in Illinois in the past two months.

Health officials want owners of rats, hedgehogs and, in particular, prairie dogs that came from Phil's Pocket Pets to come forward because these exotic pets may be transmitters of the monkeypox disease.

To date, four people in Wisconsin and one in Illinois have developed the disease and there are 34 possible cases.

There have not been any deaths.

Investigators believe a shipment of 200 prairie dogs was infected by a Gambian rat imported from Africa, where monkeypox is more prevalent.

Since the outbreak was reported the owner of the exotic pet store has killed 70 prairie dogs, but the remaining stock was sold across seven states.

What has complicated the search for investigators is the fact that many of these exotic animals have been resold at swap meets where few records are kept.

Monkeypox is a disease that produces fever, rash, chills and aches, and is a milder relative of smallpox. It has a mortality rate of one per cent to 10 per cent in Africa.