Aug 17, 2018 04:32 PM
Ontario encounters deadly "fox" tapeworm for first time
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/...-1.4784460
EXCERPT: A tiny but potentially deadly tapeworm has popped up in Ontario. It's dangerous for dogs and chipmunks but can also kill humans. Veterinarian Andrew Peregrine from the University of Guelph spoke with the CBC's Conrad Collaco about why the tapeworm is so dangerous. He put together a website to help explains to people in Ontario everything we need to know about the creature. You can read an abridged and edited version of the interview below or listen to the full audio interview....
MORE: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/...-1.4784460
Humans gave leprosy to armadillos – now they are giving it back to us
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/humans-...g-back-us/
EXCERPT: . . . commonly known as the nine-banded armadillo in the U.S. or chicken-armadillo in Brazil, is the only species whose range includes North, Central and South America. These armadillos first extended their range from Mexico into Texas around the 1850’s and then went north and east into the Gulf states of the southern U.S. In late 1940s, another group of armadillos escaped from captivity in central Florida and spread throughout Florida, eventually merging with the Texan armadillos in the early 1970s in the Florida Panhandle.
Around this time, Dr. Eleanor Storrs found that armadillos infected with Mycobacterium leprae experimentally eventually came down with symptoms of leprosy, even having the same skin lesions and nerve damage found in human cases. Shortly after this, she and her team discovered that armadillos living in the wild in Texas and Louisiana were naturally infected by M. leprae. Analysis of archived serum samples for antibodies specific for the bacterium indicated that animals from this area had likely been infected since the 1960’s. Exactly how the armadillos became infected by humans is not clear, but one theory is that they picked it up from contaminated soil by digging. Surveys of armadillos in the Gulf states found that up to 20 percent were infected with M. leprae.
At first, armadillos’ susceptibility to leprosy was a boost to science and medicine. Because they were the only animal other than humans in which the bacteria could be isolated, armadillos allowed scientists to study leprosy and possible treatments.
Now, there are millions of armadillos in the southern U.S., and people interact with them in a variety of ways. The animals’ leathery carapaces were fashioned into purses and boots; some were kept as pets in the home or brought to entertain people at petting zoos, children’s schools and at armadillo races at county fairs. In certain areas, people hunted them to serve at barbecues.
All of this exposure eventually had consequences. In 2011, Dr. Richard Truman from the National Hansen’s Disease Program in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, published a study showing that the strain infecting the majority of armadillos and native leprosy patients in Texas and Louisiana were identical, indicating that the disease was a zoonotic infection being transmitted to humans.
In 2015, another study from the same group found that a different strain type that existed only in central Florida was causing a second cluster of cases in armadillos and humans. Both of these reports caused a huge amount of media coverage, with people being somewhat surprised and alarmed that this ungainly and not very cuddly animal was transmitting the oldest and one of the most feared diseases to humans. Still, once the excitement died down, most people probably resumed their behaviors with these animals, ignoring the possible risks involved....
MORE: https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/humans-...g-back-us/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/...-1.4784460
EXCERPT: A tiny but potentially deadly tapeworm has popped up in Ontario. It's dangerous for dogs and chipmunks but can also kill humans. Veterinarian Andrew Peregrine from the University of Guelph spoke with the CBC's Conrad Collaco about why the tapeworm is so dangerous. He put together a website to help explains to people in Ontario everything we need to know about the creature. You can read an abridged and edited version of the interview below or listen to the full audio interview....
MORE: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/...-1.4784460
Humans gave leprosy to armadillos – now they are giving it back to us
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/humans-...g-back-us/
EXCERPT: . . . commonly known as the nine-banded armadillo in the U.S. or chicken-armadillo in Brazil, is the only species whose range includes North, Central and South America. These armadillos first extended their range from Mexico into Texas around the 1850’s and then went north and east into the Gulf states of the southern U.S. In late 1940s, another group of armadillos escaped from captivity in central Florida and spread throughout Florida, eventually merging with the Texan armadillos in the early 1970s in the Florida Panhandle.
Around this time, Dr. Eleanor Storrs found that armadillos infected with Mycobacterium leprae experimentally eventually came down with symptoms of leprosy, even having the same skin lesions and nerve damage found in human cases. Shortly after this, she and her team discovered that armadillos living in the wild in Texas and Louisiana were naturally infected by M. leprae. Analysis of archived serum samples for antibodies specific for the bacterium indicated that animals from this area had likely been infected since the 1960’s. Exactly how the armadillos became infected by humans is not clear, but one theory is that they picked it up from contaminated soil by digging. Surveys of armadillos in the Gulf states found that up to 20 percent were infected with M. leprae.
At first, armadillos’ susceptibility to leprosy was a boost to science and medicine. Because they were the only animal other than humans in which the bacteria could be isolated, armadillos allowed scientists to study leprosy and possible treatments.
Now, there are millions of armadillos in the southern U.S., and people interact with them in a variety of ways. The animals’ leathery carapaces were fashioned into purses and boots; some were kept as pets in the home or brought to entertain people at petting zoos, children’s schools and at armadillo races at county fairs. In certain areas, people hunted them to serve at barbecues.
All of this exposure eventually had consequences. In 2011, Dr. Richard Truman from the National Hansen’s Disease Program in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, published a study showing that the strain infecting the majority of armadillos and native leprosy patients in Texas and Louisiana were identical, indicating that the disease was a zoonotic infection being transmitted to humans.
In 2015, another study from the same group found that a different strain type that existed only in central Florida was causing a second cluster of cases in armadillos and humans. Both of these reports caused a huge amount of media coverage, with people being somewhat surprised and alarmed that this ungainly and not very cuddly animal was transmitting the oldest and one of the most feared diseases to humans. Still, once the excitement died down, most people probably resumed their behaviors with these animals, ignoring the possible risks involved....
MORE: https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/humans-...g-back-us/