Why don't people seem to die from salmonella in bites? As far as I know, reptiles have salmonella in their mouths as part of their digestive process. Every time I hear about someone being bitten by an python or alligator or monitor either at a zoo or in the news or from a private owner, it seems like whoever is bit recovers with ease. How come something as virulent as salmonella that can evade an immune response doesn't cause whoever gets bitten to nearly immediately become septic? Is it because salmonella only attacks epithelial tissue and there isn't much of that deep in an arm or leg?

Salmonella infect via the fecal-oral route. They have proteins on their surface that match our gut cell surfaces, allowing them to attach and invade the gut. Those cell markers aren't present when you are bitten. it's the same reason that plant virus dont make us sick.

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this is a bit heavy if you dont usually read primary papers, but looking for "Salmonella route of infection" or similar will yield the same kind of information