New evidence suggests that a disease-causing tapeworm that has been spreading across the United States and Canada has arrived in the Pacific Northwest.
The tapeworm, called Echinococcus multilocularis, lives as a parasite in coyotes, foxes and other canid species and can cause severe disease if passed to domestic dogs or humans.
E. multilocularis has long been recognized as a public health threat in parts of the Northern hemisphere, including Europe and Asia, but was considered extremely rare in North America until approximately 15 years ago, when cases in humans and dogs began cropping up in Canada and the midwestern U.S., indicating that the parasite was spreading.
This study, led by University of Washington researchers, is the first to detect E. multilocularis in a wild host on the west coast of the contiguous U.S. Researchers surveyed 100 coyotes in the Puget Sound region, and found E. multilocularis in 37 of them. The results were published March 24 in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
Read More: University of Washington
A new University of Washington study detected a parasitic tapeworm that can infect domestic dogs and humans in the intestines of one-third of coyotes surveyed in Washington. This coyote (not part of the study) was spotted in Seattle’s Discovery Park last fall. (Photo Credit: Samantha Kreling)
