A new zoonotic disease emerges in southern Ontario

[spinster]

Dogs, humans may be at risk from a new form of tapeworm

By Sydney Pearce
Dogs in southern Ontario are being exposed to a newly identified tapeworm that can infect humans and cause a potentially fatal disease.
Since 2012, five dogs in southern Ontario have been diagnosed with the larval stage of a small tapeworm called Echinococcus multilocularis (EM).
Reports of the disease that EM causes, called alveolar echinococcosis, surprised University of Guelph PhD candidate, Jonathon Kotwa, and Prof. Andrew Peregrine from the Department of Pathobiology, who have been studying the tapeworm in wild animal populations.
When left untreated, alveolar echinococcosis is potentially fatal in humans and dogs. Until recently, EM was not legally reportable in Canada, making it almost impossible to track animal or human cases. But the findings of this research have helped successfully push for the disease to become reportable in animals in Ontario.
This development has implications for tracking, diagnosing and spreading awareness of the disease.
Read more at https://www.uoguelph.ca/research/art...uthern-ontario

[vom Dufenshmirtz]

This is so 'academical', echinococcosis is not new.
I wish they'd just say something practical, e.g. worming your dog with XYZ every 6 months and for humans taking ABC every 6 months should prevent the disease. Bloody scientists, don't like the people in Guelph, suck people dry while writing papers, they completely lost track of their purpose in life.