Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Baylisascaris procyonis roundworms, a parasite of raccoons, can infect humans, sometimes fatally.Parasite eggs can remain viable in raccoon latrines for years.To develop a management technique for parasite eggs, we tested anthelmintic baiting.The prevalence of eggs decreased at latrines, and larval infections decreased among intermediate hosts, indicating that baiting is effective.T he emergence of zoonotic diseases, which account for ≈58% of all infectious diseases in humans, is linked to changing land use and resource consumption patterns (1).Ecosystem disturbances from human population growth and globalization result in rapid spread of zoonotic pathogens (2).Recent integrated approaches to solving global health issues acknowledge that wildlife reservoirs facilitate zoonotic pathogen emergence and emphasize the need for increased collaboration between the ecology and infectious disease communities (2).We describe a multidisciplinary collaboration that used an experimental approach to lower the prevalence, and possibly break the life cycle, of a zoonotic parasite, the Baylisascaris procyonis roundworm.
Source: Emerging infectious diseases
Institutions: Wheaton College - Illinois, Purdue University West Lafayette
Language: English
Subfield: Small Animals
Field: Veterinary
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Funder: Purdue University
OpenAlex ID: W2002158283