The South Milwaukee pet dealer at the center of the monkeypox outbreak also was diagnosed with another rare, animal-borne disease Q fever.
State epidemiologist Jim Kazmierczak says Scott Knapp got Q fever from his job as a U.S. Department of Agriculture meat inspector at a packing plant before the monkeypox outbreak erupted.
Kazmierczak says there's no connection between the two diseases.
He also says there's no danger to the food supply from Knapp's illnesses because monkeypox and Q fever aren't spread through food.
Knapp owns SK Exotics, the pet shop that brought prairie dogs into Wisconsin that were infected with monkeypox.
Kazmierczak says nationally about 25 cases of Q fever are reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control each year. The last reported case in Wisconsin was in 2000.
