I'm counting the days until the Reptile expo which is coming in one week, but before then I had to convince my father that a tortoise isn't going to get any of us sick. Long story short, we used to have turtles and once my dad found out they could give use salmonella and get us sick, he picked them up and sold them. This was several years ago, and now that I want to get a tortoise he believes that tortoise's carry a disease that can get the rest of us sick, even the captive bred. He believes that tortoise's and turtles carry diseases inside of them because they are born with it, is this any true? I haven't found any evidence of this anywhere but then again it is never mentioned.