A disease expert is warning rural Albertans to take precautions in order to avoid a parasite commonly carried by coyotes, reports the e-newsletter from Alberta Beef Producers.
The tapeworm doesn’t seem to affect coyotes but its feces contain the parasite’s eggs and when rodents ingest some of the droppings, they develop a growth on their liver that “kind of behaves like a cancer,” said Dr. Stan Houston, an infectious disease expert at the U of Alberta.
It has the same effect in humans and 17 cases were diagnosed between 2013 and 2020.
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Although the risk of being infected is low, there are simple precautions (such as washing garden produce and deworming your dogs) to lower it further.
For more, see the Aug. 19 edition of abpdaily.com.
