Dog-killing flatworm found in Southern California

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UC Riverside scientists verify, for the primary time, {that a} probably deadly canine parasite is current in a portion of the Colorado River that runs by California.

The parasite, Heterobilharzia americana, is a flatworm generally known as liver fluke. Previously discovered almost completely in Texas and different Gulf Coast states, it has by no means been reported this far west. The worm may cause canine schistosomiasis, an sickness that impacts the liver and intestines of dogs.

“Dogs can die from this infection, so we hope to boost public consciousness that it is there,” mentioned UCR nematology professor Adler Dillman. “If you are swimming within the Colorado River with them, your pets are in peril.”

After studying about instances of the an infection in native dogs, Dillman assembled a analysis staff and headed to Blythe, a border city east of Joshua Tree National Park in Riverside County, the place the sick dogs had all hung out swimming within the river.

The an infection is pushed by the presence of a snail that transmits the worm. The analysis staff collected greater than 2,000 snails from the banks of the river. A paper revealed within the journal Pathogens describes how the staff used DNA to verify the id of each the snails and the flatworm.

“We truly discovered two species of snails that may assist H. americana within the river in Blythe, and we discovered each snails actively shedding this worm,” Dillman mentioned. “Not solely was it a shock to search out H. americana, we additionally didn’t know that the snails have been current right here.”

After remodeling itself inside one of many snails, the worm ventures out with the objective of discovering a mammal to contaminate. In this stage it could possibly solely survive by itself for about 24 hours. If a canine or a raccoon is within the water, or ingesting, then it will get contaminated.

“It will get into the veins of the intestinal lining, and that is the place it develops into an grownup and mates,” Dillman mentioned. “The presence of the adults within the veins is not the issue. It’s the eggs that get into the lungs, spleen, liver, and coronary heart. The immune system tries to cope with it, and arduous clusters of immune cells referred to as granulomas type. Eventually the organ tissues cease functioning.”

Once contaminated, it may be a number of months earlier than the worst signs of the sickness seem. Since 2019 in California, 11 dogs in three counties have been confirmed with this illness, and one has died. Health officers hope that with consciousness they’ll stop additional infections and deaths.

“Symptoms begin regularly with a lack of urge for food, and ultimately embrace vomiting, diarrhea, profound weight reduction, and indicators of liver illness. If your canine has these signs after swimming within the Colorado River, it is a good precaution to ask your veterinarian for a easy fecal take a look at,” mentioned Emily Beeler, a veterinarian with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

“Treatment usually entails use of a number of medicines and shut monitoring of the canine by a veterinarian,” Beeler mentioned.

It is essential to notice that H. americana isn’t recognized to be able to inflicting illness in people. “It may cause swimmer’s itch, a pink rash the place it penetrates human pores and skin. But it isn’t capable of trigger an infection,” Dillman mentioned.

Additionally, Dillman hopes to allay issues that the parasite may very well be contaminating city ingesting water. “Compared to different pathogens these worms are pretty giant. They can simply be filtered out with widespread water purification methods,” he mentioned. Though there is no such thing as a trigger for concern about contamination of water sources, ingesting the water immediately continues to be inadvisable.

“You have viruses, micro organism, and different parasites reminiscent of Giardia in rivers,” Dillman mentioned. “Nobody must be ingesting straight out of the river, and that has nothing to do with this explicit parasite.”