Curious.

[I'm doing this now!]

Not complaining (just curious) but my thread re Mice v spud was closed quite quickly with reasons given. Can I assume that any question relating to human consumption matters and any animals defecating or urinating on such plants, crops or soil would be similarly closed due to lack or expert advice? Unsure where else to go for advice or opinions? Any forum suggestions gratefully received. Steve.

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks for your post, Steve. Apologies for the delay in responding.

Closing or deleting a topic is often a difficult judgement call to make. That said, the Vine mods are volunteer representatives of the publishers of Grow Your Own magazine, who cannot be held responsible for the consequences of anyone following medical advice given on this gardening forum.

Rodents carry some extremely nasty viruses and though humans rarely catch them in the UK, it does happen from time to time. Some people may be especially vulnerable to these illnesses, even indirectly. You may remember the recent story in the press earlier this year about the death in the States of Gene Hackman following the death of his wife, who died of hantavirus, carried by rodents.

We each follow our own common sense with regard to cleaning the produce we grow. Rodents are especially problematic in this regard. In your original post, you described a severe case of contamination and you clearly had your own doubts about your potatoes. And your wife exercised her own common sense in declining to eat them.

With regard to the viruses carried by mice and rats, see this Google search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=what...hrome&ie=UTF-8
And for a UK-based site dealing with diseases associated with rats, many of which are also carried by mice see: https://integrumservices.co.uk/pest-...ses-from-rats/

[Nicos]

Thanks for your understanding Steve. Sometimes being a mod is a bit ‘piggy in the middle’ but we do need to cover things from all aspects as far as the magazine is concerned.
These decisions don’t come lightly but there is a protocol we have to follow as a team of mods.

Your initial question was a valid one and I guess we have all looked at some of our nibbled produce and had to make a decision either way. But we do know our own vulnerabilities healthwise. A visitor to the Vine might not..and we have thousands of nonmembers checking out our forum at any given time. Those are the people we also need to keep in mind…including children who may not be able to judge a situation.

The links Snoop included in her post are very interesting…there are some diseases I’d never heard of.
Basically it’s our own choice , but as mods we have to err on the side of caution…not just for our members/ visitors but also as representatives of the magazine.

Again- thanks for your understanding.

[Mark Rand]

One should note that the second link is a completely one-sided advertisement...

[Nicos]

Thanks Mark…they are really just meant to give an idea of what could be involved by close contact/ consuming contaminated foods.
We encourage everyone to look into this aspect of growing our own veg. Bit like if people bother to have a tetanus jab or choose to use toxic chemicals for weed/ pest control….but that’s another bag of cookies .

I’m going to close this thread now, but it’s been interesting having the aspect of contamination being brought up…