Parasite from cat faeces killed four sea otters in California

Four oversea otters successful California are reported to person died from corruption with a uncommon strain of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, which is chiefly recovered successful chaotic and home cats and commonly transmitted done their faeces. This is the archetypal recorded lawsuit of this terrible signifier of toxoplasmosis successful a marine animal, and could mean an unusually virulent strain of the parasite is circulating connected land.

“Otters are truly bully astatine showing what comes from onshore to sea,” says Melissa Miller astatine the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Their dense fare of bivalves, which filter water, means runoff contaminated with T. gondii eggs tin extremity up reaching otters.

The parasite commonly causes chronic infections successful otters, but it is antithetic for infections to rapidly termination big otters, she says.

Miller and her colleagues performed necropsies connected 4 southern oversea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) recovered stranded betwixt 2020 and 2022, each during the February and March rainy seasons. Three big pistillate otters were stranded adjacent Big Sur successful San Luis Obispo region successful California; 1 younger antheral was recovered successful Santa Cruz region astir 170 kilometres further north.

The otters were infected with much parasites crossed much insubstantial types than usually seen successful Toxoplasma infections, and they had severely inflamed abdominous associated with the beingness of parasites. “As soon arsenic I started looking astatine them nether the microscope, I was like, ‘whoa’,” says Miller.

The researchers recovered that cardinal sequences of the parasite’s DNA were identical to a strain that had antecedently been reported lone successful a brace of mountain lions successful British Columbia, Canada, successful 1995 and a chaotic pig successful the Sierra Nevada mountains successful California astir 20 years later.

It is unclear whether the antheral otter was infected successful the aforesaid country arsenic the others and past swam north, oregon whether the otters were infected successful antithetic places, says Chunlei Su astatine the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who wasn’t progressive with the work.

Miller says it is besides unclear whether the strain – called “COUG” – is arsenic virulent successful different animals arsenic it appears to beryllium successful otters, though it has been shown to beryllium harmful successful mice and she is acrophobic astir different marine wildlife. She adds that humans who grip perchance infected animals should beryllium careful. “Wear a 2nd brace of gloves,” she says.

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