CNN
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Customs staff at a Minnesota airport found a traveler had introduced a novel memento in her baggage: Giraffe feces.

The passenger arrived on the Minneapolis-Saint Paul Worldwide Airport from Kenya on September 29, in accordance with a information launch from US Customs and Border Safety.

“The passenger declared giraffe feces and acknowledged she had obtained the droppings in Kenya and deliberate to make a necklace,” the discharge acknowledged.

The traveler mentioned she had beforehand used moose feces to make related jewellery at her residence in Iowa, in accordance with customs officers.

The company’s agriculture specialists “seized the field, and the excrement was destroyed through steam sterilization” in accordance with protocol, the discharge mentioned.

“There’s a actual hazard with bringing fecal matter into the U.S.,” LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, director of subject operations on the company’s Chicago subject workplace, mentioned within the launch. “If this individual had entered the U.S. and had not declared these things, there’s excessive risk an individual may have contracted a illness from this jewellery and developed critical well being points.”

Bringing “ruminant animal feces” into the US requires a veterinary providers allow, the discharge mentioned. The company famous Kenya experiences African Swine Fever, Classical Swine Fever, Newcastle illness, Foot and Mouth illness, and Swine Vesicular Illness.

Giraffes inhabit 27 of the 47 counties in Kenya, in accordance with the Giraffe Conservation Basis. The muse mentioned illness has performed a little-understood position within the decline of giraffe populations throughout the nation.