A rare and highly potent parasite commonly found in cat poop has killed four sea otters off the coast of California. Researchers said Wednesday it was unprecedented and potentially dangerous to humans and other animals.
Karen Shapiro, Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology at the University of California, Davis, said: A news release explained preliminary findings Known as a ‘complete surprise’, a rare strain of the parasite toxoplasma gondiihas never been seen in sea otters or other aquatic mammals or birds.
Shapiro and three co-authors from the University and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Their study was published Wednesday in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science..
Melissa Miller Henson of the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that in her 25 years of studying toxoplasmosis in sea otters, she had never seen such severe lesions or large numbers of parasites.
“We are reporting our preliminary findings to warn others about this concerning condition,” she said. It can also cause disease in animals and humans that share the same environment or food resources that are consumed raw or undercooked, such as mussels, clams, oysters and crabs.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, most cases of toxoplasmosis in healthy humans go undetected, but it can cause serious illness in people with compromised immune systems, as well as just before or during pregnancy. It can cause miscarriages and other health problems in women infected with parasites in. And prevention.
It’s not clear how the rare strain of Toxoplasma affects people, according to the release.
According to the study, the four southern sea otters studied by researchers were spotted in San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz counties between February 2020 and March 2022. Researchers have suggested that the animals may have become infected with the parasite from rainwater runoff.
The type of Toxoplasma found in the body of Toxoplasma gondii known as COUG was first discovered in 1995 in a Canadian mountain lion. It’s not clear how the parasite got to California, but the release describes it as having arrived recently.
