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There is true hydatids which can infect humans, and
there is the sheep measels hydatids which causes cysts in the sheep and no doubt
ruins the meat for export.
In NZ the meat industry did a study on results of
hydatids testing that was carried out here for many years (and extremely harsh
on the dogs too) and I attended a farmers meeting when they travelled around the
country announcing what they had discovered, maybe 15 to 20 years
ago.
Went something like this:
HIghest percentage of dogs infected lived on sheep
farms.
Next highest lived on mixed sheep & cattle farms.
Next in line lived on cattle farms.
The lowest infection rate about 1% (or less) if I
remember were "other dogs" ie the family pet dog that had been blamed for all
the problem for all those years!
I'm fairly sure if sheep are found with true
hydatids a traceback is done including the farmers dogs quarantined and
tested. I'm pretty sure that's what happens, but don't quote me
I also did research on something like "Babesia
Gibsoni" can't remember the proper name that dogs have to be tested for
when coming from Australia.
Discovered via Scottish Research scientist who was
very helpful that dogs would need to eat brain, spinal or afterbirth to contract
this disease from infected cattle. Some imported dogs some years ago were
found to have this disease (which started all this) from blood results.
The dogs were put down (it's incurable). They were St Bernards I think,
bloody expensive no doubt. Problem was, it was false positive - they
didn't have it at all.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 5:59 PM
Subject: Re: [working-gundog] Duck
Hunting
Hi Jere - Yep thats the same tapeworm that we have
(Echinococcus granulosus). A couple of links if anybody is interested,
(http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/249686/Hydatids-the-basics.pdf)
(http://www.science.org.au/nova/056/056print.htm)
In
Aust. the disease is most common in areas where there is sheep grazing. I
recall reading somewhere that researchers found a significant percentage
(approx 15% from memory) of foxes in sheep country were infected. They also
found significant numbers of herding dogs that work on sheep farms were
infected. Human infection rates: The second article states that there were 321
reported cases of infection between '87-'92. As in the article Jere posted,
Aust. hunters are advised to wear gloves when skinning their game. Very few
do.
Rob
Jere Murray wrote:
There are hydatid disease occurs in Alaska - see
http://www.wc.adfg.state.ak.us/index.cfm?adfg=disease.internal4
Jere
Maud & Torsti wrote:
...
The *h**ydatids *article is also interesting and I wonder if the tape
worm is similar to something we have down in Europe but that only
seems to attack the liver of fox, dog and humans, however with deadly
results. We are scared of getting it to Scandinavia since foxs faeces
can infect berries like blue-berries and lingonberries and we eat a
lot of berries here.
Could be similar, hydatid must be somewhere in Europe, since that's
where we got it from. (Original imports of livestock etc, back when
Europeans first came to Australia). In Australia we treat our dogs every
3 months with a broad spectrum worm tablet and the reason for that
treatment is hydatids. When I was living in the USA, dogs were only
treated for worms when they showed signs of infection (worms in their
stools etc). The vet I spoke to said it was because there was no
hydatids in the USA, so the risks to humans of canine spread worms was
far less.
Cheers,
Rob
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