Called the fox tapeworm. Echinococcus multilocularis It’s native to Asia but is showing up in the PNW. It infects foxes and coyotes and can also affect dogs and humans. If not discovered in time will create cysts in your liver and survival rate for humans only about 10%.

It's been over there for a while, and is probably endemic in some places, but said to be spreading.

Never eat unwashed windfall fruit. Where there's dog/fox poop, there is Echinococcus. Free range dogs are spreaders, too.

Not much can be done when the cysts appear, some people are told to live with them because surgery is too dangerous.

Muskrats are intermediate hosts by the way.

I think I've posted pictures of beaver affected by Echinococcus cysts in the liver and kidneys. Bon appetit.

Not good. By the time you get sick, might be too late.........kinda like rabies.

It's not THAT bad.
But you might want to reconsider following the beaver butchering advice I sometimes see here where people tell others just to cut out the backstraps and hind quarters without opening the abdominal cavity and looking at the liver. The liver is usually the first organ to be visibly affected by cysts.

How is it transmitted?

yeah that's what I want to know so I don't catch it

Dog/fox poop infested with millions and millions of eggs. Raw uwashed fruit and vegetables or unwashed hands are a common cause. The eggs hatch in your guts, the larvae burrow through the gut, get into the bloodstream, settle all over your body and grow cysts (bubbles) around themselves, hoping a predator will kill and eat you (and swallow the larvae).


They can persist for many years.



Wash your food and wash your hands thoroughly.


Deworm your dogs frequently. Infected pet dogs that are allowed to poop on the property (including the garden/orchards/pastures/kids' playgrounds) are a common source of infection.

A doctor friend told me about a case back in the Soviet times when a bunch of army recruits got sick at once, with severe symptoms. Turned out the military base where they were stationed had an orchard on the enclosed territory, and the guard dogs that were set free to patrol it at night were infected with Echinococcosis. The microscopic eggs from the dog poop were all over the windfall fruit.

Great Info...

yep

One more thing to worry about. Thank you Asia! As if Covid, and Spotted Wing Drosophila weren't enough.

I happen to have a border collie that can't pass up any animal poop he finds either!

Thanks Tatiana for your responses!

Credelio Quattro takes care of it. I wish we sold it here but it’s in our online store. Get your dogs on it. In PA now too

Anyone know the dope for humans?


Just was informed of ANOTHER funeral.
No wonder I'm a crank case.

Prevention only.

The problem with Echinococcus is, the cyst walls are barely penetrable even to very toxic deworming meds. It means it takes very high doses of poison to get to them. Best case scenario, you just kill most of your liver (at least it might grow back, our livers are tenacious).

If you manage to kill the larvae, they will stop producing special substances that make them invisible to your immune system. Your immune system will suddenly "see" and attack them brutally. It's like having a bunch of lumps of very irritating foreign substance scattered randomly in your organs. They won't just shrink and disappear. It will cause severe anaphylaxis, cysts will degrade and burst and start decaying. Easy way to die fast from anaphylaxis, toxic shock, kidney failure, etc. Never try to get rid of cyst-forming parasites and liver duct flukes at home.

It's only okay to take mild deworming drugs that go through your intestines and don't get absorbed in the blood much, to kill roundworms or certain intestinal tapeworms such as Diphyllobothrium (you can get it from undercooked river fish). Even so, there can be unpleasant side effects. I once had a mild anaphylaxis-type reaction to a dose of Pyrantel, which is considered to be a very harmless roundworm drug, because apparently it killed something and that something released a ton of substances while dying, that triggered a violent immune response.

Another funeral from this parasite?

Thank you.

I'm tempted to start wearing gloves when I skin fox and coyotes from here on out.

I think they were talking about this in coyotes in Canada 5-6 years ago already.

Im not gonna be to worried about it.

Echinococcus eggs survive drying so when you shake a dried coyote pelt to make it look nice, and the coyote had rolled in another k9's turd, you'll inhale and swallow the eggs Always a chance.
Just keep in mind that canines are more filthy than most other furbearers and wash your hands.

And gloves are always a good idea. Ignorance is bliss. The variety of nasty stuff on critters, all the viruses, bacteria, worms, prions, ..., is pretty amazing.
I took apart a hedgehog today for the virus people and they gave me special heavy duty biohazard gloves because its needles would have shredded the regular nitrile gloves instantly. I should get some of them for skinning. Poking through a glove while skinning a fox and nicking my hand already cost me six rabies shots this year.

Well known by trappers in Canada,especially wolf trappers.
Covered in the trapping education manuals.All diseases and risks are covered as well as fur handling practices for mitigation.
Gloves when skinning are a given.
Like was said dried shite on pelts carry the eggs and the risk is hydatid disease-when the cysts form in your lungs from breathing in the dried eggs when brushing untreated skins.
I always spray all the canine skins with bleach water before skinning and before brushing so there is no dust to breath in.
There were articles written about hydatids in the NAFA and FHA magazines fairly regularly. It is nothing new.