Rat lungworm: The brain-burrowing parasite is spreading through Florida
Josh Solomon, Times Staff Writer
Friday, June 30, 2017
Now add to the mix a parasite that can burrow through your brain.
Angiostrongylus cantonensis, also known as rat lungworm, has been detected in rats & snails in 5 Florida counties, including Hillsborough, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Florida's Department of Infectious Disease & Pathology.
When ingested, the parasite can, in rare cases, cause a form of meningitis in humans. Some people who are infected don't experience symptoms. Others suffer headaches, neck stiffness, skin tingling, low fever, nausea & vomiting before those ailments clear up on their own.
In severe cases, you can die.
The worm is endemic to Hawaii & likely caught a ride to the continental States in the 1980s on its primary host, a rat, which hitchhiked on a ship.
They expected to find the tropical parasite in South Florida where it had already announced itself, study co-author John Slapcinsky told the Florida Museum of Natural History, but not all over.
"The reality is that it's probably in more Counties than we found it in, and it's also probably more prevalent in the southeastern U.S. than we think," lead author & assistant professor Heather Stockdale Walden told the museum. "The ability for this historically subtropical nematode to thrive in a more temperate climate is alarming."
The life cycle of the worms is cringe-inducing.
A rat will eat a snail infected with the worm larvae, which will then dig through the rat's intestine to enter its bloodstream. Once they reach the rat's brain, the larvae grow into immature worms, re-enter the bloodstream & lodge in the rat's pulmonary artery, where they mature & lay eggs. The eggs then hatch in the rat's lung tissue. Rats cough up the new larvae, swallow & excrete them. Snails then eat the feces & become infected themselves.
Then the cycle repeats.
Human transmission usually occurs from eating unwashed produce like lettuce that had snails on it, according to the CDC.
Once inside a human, the larvae travel to the brain & spinal cord, mature into worms & meander toward the lungs, according to the National Institutes of Health. Usually, though, the worms die before they get there. Diagnosis is 3-pronged: symptoms, blood or spinal fluid tests & exposure history.
Rat lungworms can also affect animals & pets. A white-handed gibbon, a primate, died in 2003 at the Miami-Dade Zoo from exposure to the parasite.
To protect animals & livestock, Stockdale Walden said, watch for snails in living quarters & watering troughs.
Humans get infected by consuming raw produce — leafy greens, herbs, sweet potatoes — or water contaminated by the slug or snail.
First, wash all produce — even fruits — especially if you’re going to eat them raw. Since tiny snails & slugs are harder to detect on leafy greens, each leaf should be carefully washed, front & back, in water. Mikala Minn of Mahele Farm, a 10 acre community farm, says you have to wash fruits & vegetables under running water, not just soak them in a bowl of water. He even recommends peeling bananas from the closed end & not eating any part of the fruit that was exposed. “Slugs are all over bananas,” he says.
1 comment:
http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/nematode/rat_lungworm.htm
Unless you are arguing with Bodek or Sachdis, even the larvae are the shiur of issur d'Oraysseh
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/rat-lungworm-the-brain-burrowing-parasite-is-spreading-through-florida/2328997
Rat lungworm: The brain-burrowing parasite is spreading through Florida
Josh Solomon, Times Staff Writer
Friday, June 30, 2017
Now add to the mix a parasite that can burrow through your brain.
Angiostrongylus cantonensis, also known as rat lungworm, has been detected in rats & snails in 5 Florida counties, including Hillsborough, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Florida's Department of Infectious Disease & Pathology.
When ingested, the parasite can, in rare cases, cause a form of meningitis in humans. Some people who are infected don't experience symptoms. Others suffer headaches, neck stiffness, skin tingling, low fever, nausea & vomiting before those ailments clear up on their own.
In severe cases, you can die.
The worm is endemic to Hawaii & likely caught a ride to the continental States in the 1980s on its primary host, a rat, which hitchhiked on a ship.
They expected to find the tropical parasite in South Florida where it had already announced itself, study co-author John Slapcinsky told the Florida Museum of Natural History, but not all over.
"The reality is that it's probably in more Counties than we found it in, and it's also probably more prevalent in the southeastern U.S. than we think," lead author & assistant professor Heather Stockdale Walden told the museum. "The ability for this historically subtropical nematode to thrive in a more temperate climate is alarming."
The life cycle of the worms is cringe-inducing.
A rat will eat a snail infected with the worm larvae, which will then dig through the rat's intestine to enter its bloodstream. Once they reach the rat's brain, the larvae grow into immature worms, re-enter the bloodstream & lodge in the rat's pulmonary artery, where they mature & lay eggs. The eggs then hatch in the rat's lung tissue. Rats cough up the new larvae, swallow & excrete them. Snails then eat the feces & become infected themselves.
Then the cycle repeats.
Human transmission usually occurs from eating unwashed produce like lettuce that had snails on it, according to the CDC.
Once inside a human, the larvae travel to the brain & spinal cord, mature into worms & meander toward the lungs, according to the National Institutes of Health. Usually, though, the worms die before they get there. Diagnosis is 3-pronged: symptoms, blood or spinal fluid tests & exposure history.
Rat lungworms can also affect animals & pets. A white-handed gibbon, a primate, died in 2003 at the Miami-Dade Zoo from exposure to the parasite.
To protect animals & livestock, Stockdale Walden said, watch for snails in living quarters & watering troughs.
http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/April-2017/6-Things-You-Need-to-Know-About-Rat-Lungworm-Disease-Before-You-Eat-a-Salad/
Humans get infected by consuming raw produce — leafy greens, herbs, sweet potatoes — or water contaminated by the slug or snail.
First, wash all produce — even fruits — especially if you’re going to eat them raw. Since tiny snails & slugs are harder to detect on leafy greens, each leaf should be carefully washed, front & back, in water. Mikala Minn of Mahele Farm, a 10 acre community farm, says you have to wash fruits & vegetables under running water, not just soak them in a bowl of water. He even recommends peeling bananas from the closed end & not eating any part of the fruit that was exposed. “Slugs are all over bananas,” he says.
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