Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting RMEF Turns Up Heat on Pro-Wolf Groups

noduck, I read somewhere awhile back that parvo was killing your Wolves, any truth to that?

What may well spell the downfall of the wolf in the west in the long run is a parasite that they are now carrying that is transmisable to humans. It can be transmitted through contact with wolf scat and other means and can be transmitted through the air when, for example, dry wolf scat is disturbed, etc.; the consequences of this parasite are life threatening. In Idaho for example I believe the state is going to bring in the CDC and has plans (if for example Mulloy the federal judge hearing the case to put the wolf back under endangered protection returns the wolf to protected status) to use both the original legislation and the public health issues to reduce the wolf population in the state to the original agreed upon level of "full reintroduction", which is a vastly smaller number than the present number of wolves in the state.

For 50 years, E. multilocularis was thought to be confined to the Alaskan coast and Canada. Now, because wild coyotes, foxes, and wolves are being trapped and transported to states where E. multilocularis has not previously been found, there is increased risk of spreading the disease to animals and humans. Wild animals carrying the tapeworm could set up the transmission cycle and expose animals not already infected. Many states prohibit this movement of wild animals, but trapping and movement of infected wild canines still occurs. If the transportation and relocation of these animals continues, the risk of human transmission will increase. Although the chances of contracting AE are low, certain groups may be at greater risk.

You may be at greater risk if you live in an area where E. multilocularis is found (see above). People at high risk include trappers, hunters, veterinarians, or others who contact wild foxes, coyotes, or their stool, or household cats and dogs who have the opportunity to eat wild rodents infected with AE.

Wolf-born hydatid disease: Fact versus fallacy

By TERRI ADAMS, The Prairie Star
Wednesday, March 24, 2010 2:26 PM MDT







Many people are in an uproar over wolves and some of those same people are worried about hydatid disease, claiming wolves are carrying and spreading the disease.

While there is some truth to that claim, wolves are not the only carriers of the disease.

Any canine can carry and spread the disease, from wolves and coyotes to the family pet. It depends on the circumstances, not the species.

The disease is caused by a tapeworm and there are nine different strains of the disease, according to Gary McCallister, professor of biology at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colo. He has researched hydatid disease in Southern Utah, western Colorado and the Navajo Indian reservation.



McCallister said the eggs need to pass through two different hosts, a carnivore and an ungulate (grazing animal) to complete their cycle.

Hydatid eggs are too tiny to see. When these eggs pass out of an infected canine they can fall on and stick to anything -hair, plants, grasses, he said.



The eggs are then transferred to the ungulate host when it swallows an egg in the course of feeding or licking something tainted with the tiny eggs.

Once the egg enters the second host, it hatches into it larva form. The tapeworm larva then travels through the system of the second host and attaches itself to the internal organs, McCallister said.

There it forms a watery cyst that slowly grows. Hydatis means water in Latin, he explained.

When the infected host dies and the cystic organ, containing the larva, is consumed by a wild animal, McCallister said.

�In sheep the cysts can remain infectious for many months. They don't form ice crystals readily so it has to get very cold before they are destroyed. And if the cysts remain inside a dead animal they are protected from freezing to a great extent,� McCallister said.

For that reason a canine, wild or domestic, can feed on an older carcass and still become infected.

Once inside the new host, the larva develops into an adult tapeworm, produces new eggs, and the cycle repeats itself, he added.

�The disease is mostly a zoonoses, a disease of lower animals that a human can get,� he said.

Humans do not develop an actual tapeworm. Instead, they play host to the larva and develop the watery cysts in their body.

�There is no cure,� said McCallister, although surgery is often used to try and remove any cysts from humans.

Usually the cysts attached to the liver but hydatid cysts in humans have also been found on other organs, including the lungs and in the brain.

McCallister said the disease is a significant health issue because there is no cure and cysts are often difficult to detect and remove.

�However, it is not widespread and so many people see it as unimportant, unless you are the one who gets it. The severity of the disease means it is significant, even if the incidence says it is not,� he said.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) considers hydatid disease enough of a problem to post several pages and reports on it, noting it is a worldwide problems for humans although, as McCallister said, transmission to humans in the U.S. is low.

Though the chances of contracting hydatid disease are low, the CDC reports that some groups may be at greater risk. McCallister agrees.

�It is mostly associated as an occupational hazard of certain types of agriculture such as sheep, cattle, or in wildlife occupations,� he said.

Humans can ingest the eggs if they handle an infected animal, either living or dead, and then touch their hands to their mouths or handle food.

Hunters, ranchers or trappers who handle the carcasses of wolves or coyotes are especially at risk. Even petting a ranch dog can lead to human infection if the dog has eggs on its fur because it is infected or because it brushed up against eggs somewhere else.

Though the U.S. does not have many reported cases of hydatid disease in humans, some researchers are beginning to suspect that the actual number of human hydatid cases may be higher than previously thought. Definitely the circumstances for infection are increasing.

The Centers for Disease Control report states �because wild coyotes, foxes, and wolves are being trapped and transported to states where E. multilocularis has not previously been found, there is increased risk of spreading the disease to animals and humans .� If the transportation and relocation of these animals continues, the risk of human transmission will increase.�

According to McCallister, foxes are more commonly infected with the E. multilocularis species, which is impossible to treat, because foxes feed more heavily on rodents than wolves do.

The CDC reports, �You may be at greater risk if you live in an area where E. multilocularis is found.�

With the transportation and relocation of wolves, has hydatid disease been found in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho?

The answer is both yes and no.

While there has not been a reported case of hydatid disease in a human this year, the 2009 Idaho Fish and Game Wildlife Health Laboratory (WHL) report stated,�Wolf necropsies indicated the continued presence of lice (Trichodectes canis) and tape worm (Echinococcus), previously detected last year in Idaho. Wolves are most likely the definitive host of this previously unrecognized parasite in the state.�

In 2009 the Journal of Wildlife Diseases published the report, �Echinococcus granulosus in gray wolves and ungulates in Idaho and Montana, USA.�

This report showed that 63 percent of wolves tested in Idaho have hydatid disease while 63 percent of wolves tested in Montana have the disease.

Furthermore, �the detection of thousands of tapeworms per wolf was a common finding.�

The report states �Based on our results, the parasite is now well established in wolves in these states and is documented in elk, mule deer, and a mountain goat as intermediate hosts.

Parasitologist William Foreyt of Washing-ton State University was surprised by the amount of tapeworms they found in the 123 wolves he helped study.

�I was absolutely shocked to see such a high prevalence,� he said. �Some of these wolves had tens of thousands of tapeworms. They were massively infected.�

For their own protection citizens must remember that wolves are not the only carriers.

�All dogs being capable of being infected and the family dog is the greatest threat to most people,� said McCallister.

Not just farm dogs, either.

�We saw numerous poodles infected in southern Utah. They were house pets, but allowed to run free in the neighborhood. In one case the town dump, with sheep carcasses, was only about six blocks away. The dog was trotting over there for its afternoon snack,� he said.

According to the CDC, people at high risk include trappers, hunters, veterinarians, or others who contact wild foxes, coyotes, or their stool, or even those who come in contact with household cats and dogs who may have become infected by eating wild animals and rodents infected with hydatid disease.

Children are also at risk because of their close contact with family pets.

�Dogs can be easily treated and cured, so continued treatment of dogs, care in personal hygiene, keeping dogs from wild animal carcasses, and disposing of animal carcasses properly all help mitigate the disease,� said McCallister.

Hydatid disease is in the area but officials stress there is no reason to panic.

Good hygiene and simple precautions will greatly reduce or even eliminate the risk to the hard-working families of Montana and Wyoming.

... dramaticlly increased hunter harvest.

But....the more common it becomes, the more folks will be caught. The more people who are caught, the more heat that will generate on hunters and livestock producers as a whole. Then everybody loses.

Not to mention some well advertised convictions and time in prison will take pause for some folks.

It's kind've like saying poachers keep deer and elk populations under control by....well....poaching.

From the standpoint of the law, and most Americans, poaching is poaching, and not something I would associate myself with......


Casey

What may well spell the downfall of the wolf in the west in the long run is a parasite that they are now carrying that is transmisable to humans. It can be transmitted through contact with wolf scat and other means and can be transmitted through the air when, for example, dry wolf scat is disturbed, etc.; the consequences of this parasite are life threatening. In Idaho for example I believe the state is going to bring in the CDC and has plans (if for example Mulloy the federal judge hearing the case to put the wolf back under endangered protection returns the wolf to protected status) to use both the original legislation and the public health issues to reduce the wolf population in the state to the original agreed upon level of "full reintroduction", which is a vastly smaller number than the present number of wolves in the state.

I shot a moose in 1993, before the parasites were being trnsfered by wolves. As I was cutting up the meat I noticed little white cysts in the muscles. I called FW&P, they told me I could eat it but to heat it well. I said no thanks. They sent a warden over, who took the meat, and feed it to lions that where being rehabilitated.

My cats eat mice, and from time to time a little white portion of a worm wiggles out their anus. I go get some tape worm meds and it clears them up for awhile.

[quote=rl11]
Like I said, a whole lot of rhetoric.......and not a lot of conservation ethic.........



Casey

These parasites are here, have been here, and will be here regardless of the wolf.

Smokepole,

Yeah, I've noticed there are no more mice around to carry hantavirus...they're about to make the ESL.

If you think wolves will be eliminated because of a few parasites...you'd be wrong....

That battle is over and you wont be changing that...period.

In general I agree that across the board people lump all poaching together and no illegal killing can be called a good thing. In this case I think the people of WY are pretty well fed up with the federal government and its handling of the wolf situation and are much more likely to turn a blind eye or a deaf ear toward the killing of wolves than they are when other animals are involved. The guys at WY Game and Fish that I know arent real gung ho about protecting wolves either. I'd hazard a guess that it would be pretty hard to convict someone of shooting a wolf in areas that lose many calves,sheep, and game to wolves. I could be wrong but I dont think so.

Isn't it ironic to hear a wolf supporter speaking of ethics......