“This parasite is concerning because it has been spreading across North America,” lead study author Yasmine Hentati said
Credit: CDC
NEED TO KNOW
- A deadly tapeworm has been detected on the West Coast for the first time, according to researchers
- The parasite, prevalent in canines, is known scientifically as Echinococcus multilocularis, but commonly as the “fox tapeworm”
- Symptoms can go unnoticed for up to 15 years
A potentially deadly parasitic tapeworm called Echinococcus multilocularis has been detected in wildlife on the West Coast for the first time, researchers said in a study.
E. multilocularis, also known as the "fox tapeworm," is a parasite that uses coyotes, foxes and other species of canids as hosts. It was considered rare in North America until 15 years ago, when cases in humans and dogs began appearing in Canada and the Midwestern U.S., according to the University of Washington's UW News.
The study was published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases on March 24 and led by researchers at the University of Washington. They found E. multilocularis in 37 of 100 coyotes they surveyed in the Puget Sound area.
“This parasite is concerning because it has been spreading across North America,” lead author Yasmine Hentati told UW News in April. “There have been numerous cases of dogs getting sick, and a handful of people have also picked up the tapeworm.”
The recent UW grad with a doctorate in environmental and forest science continued, “The fact that we found it here in one-third of our coyotes was surprising, because it wasn't found anywhere in the Pacific Northwest until earlier this year.”
The parasite attacks the liver “as a slow growing, destructive tumor, often with abdominal pain” and can be misdiagnosed as liver cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
In rare cases, metastatic lesions can occur in the lungs, spleen, and brain. Untreated infections have a high fatality rate, the CDC added.
It is found in the small intestine of the definitive hosts, which are wild and domestic canids, but the parasite can infect humans.
Rodents can also become hosts of the tapeworms, and the parasite's life cycle starts when a coyote, or another species of canine, eats an infected rodent.
"Humans and domestic dogs are categorized as accidental hosts. Humans may pick up the parasite by consuming tapeworm eggs — in food that is contaminated with coyote or dog feces, for example — and can develop a disease called alveolar echinococcosis, characterized by slow-growing metastatic cysts," according to UW News.
Symptoms can take between five and 15 years to develop, which can make treatment complicated, UW News added.
Owners of domestic dogs can prevent their pets from being infected with the tapeworm by limiting their pets' access to areas with wild rodents, and by having the dog dewormed, according to the University of Saskatchewan.
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“The reason that it's so high in coyotes is because they are regularly eating raw rodents, and that is the primary way for them to get infected. Most domestic dogs are not eating the raw livers of wild rodents,” Hentati told UW News.
However, while the tapeworm has been reported in North America, Canada, Alaska, and in some cases, Arizona and New Mexico, the CDC added, “The lack of accurate case reporting and genotyping currently prevents any precise mapping of the true epidemiologic picture.”
“The main takeaway is that Echinococcus multilocularis is here, it's pretty prevalent in the local coyote population and people should be aware of potential risks,” Hentati said.
Read the full article here
