Idaho Wolf disease update: Recently “Wolves in Russia” author Will Graves has been communicating with a professor of Veterinary Epidemiology in Kazakhstan regarding wolf diseases and uncovered some potential threats we must be prepared for here in Idaho. What we have learned and is very disturbing is that 20% of the dogs in rural Kazakhstan have been infected with E.G. and this is based on only 19.5% of the Kazakhstan wolves being tested positive for E.G. In comparison to Idaho, nearly 100% of Idaho’s recent wolf necropsies tested positive for E.G. but how many of our dogs have E.G. or have even been tested????? Just in the Salmon, Idaho valley alone, Idaho For Wildlife has sent in 11 wolves for testing and 100% of the necropsies tested positive for E.G.! Our concern is many human’s may be infected in Rural parts of Idaho in high wolf density regions and may not even know it! We have a web page devoted to wolf diseases, (See below) and we are going to prepare an information process on how to get rural dogs tested for E.G. Due to all of the work that our Salmon IFW chapter Chairman Shane McAfee has conducted on wolf testing, the Idaho Dept of health & Welfare is very concerned with the results. Shane has submitted so many wolf samples to the University of Colorado that they now are doing these tests for free as they are so concerned with what they are seeing in Idaho. IDFG continues to down play this disease threat but based on worldwide scientific research and information gathering we feel this is a great threat for the future of Rural Idaho. Unfortunately we were correct on what wolves were going to do to Idaho’s back country elk population in spite of IDFG’s rhetoric that we were wrong and we have no reason to believe the disease issue will be any differently. Dear Mr Graves, Thank you for your interest in our article. However I know little about wolves, other than there are lots of them in Kazakhstan. The primary interest was really in the parasites - especially Echinococcus granulosus. E. granulosus is a very serious zoonosis and in rural areas of Kazakhstan infects about 20% of dogs. It then transmits to people through close contact with dogs causing hydatid disease which is a large cystic lesion in your liver of lungs. The parasite naturally circulates between sheep and dogs. However the parasite almost certainly originated in wild life, probably circulating between wolves and wild ungulates. Man has been getting this disease ever since dogs were domesticated. I work with several scientists in Kazakhstan and the material for the manuscript was supplied by local hunters. In many areas wolves are considered a pest and a danger to livestock, especially as there are so many in Kazakhstan. All the best Prof. Dr. P. R. Torgerson PhD, VetMB, DipECVPH Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology Vetsuisse Faculty Winterthurestrasse 270 8057 Zurich idahoforwildlife/
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 19:05:40 +0000
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