2023-09-21 19:17:00
Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Brown rats found and tested near Atlanta have now been found to carry rat lungworm, researchers report. It’s a parasite that can trigger dangerous encephalitis in both people researchers in Georgia say the microscopic rat lungworm, known scientifically as Angiostrongylus cantonensis, typically begins its life cycle in native and exotic snails; Rats likely contracted the parasite after eating these snails. A. cantonensis was first identified in Asia and was not endemic to the United States for many years. It first appeared in Hawaii before being detected in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida, “probably introduced by rats and gastropods [caracoles] infected through trade routes, such as merchant ships,” explained a team led by Nicole Gottdenker. She is an associate professor of pathology at the University of Georgia in Athens. Infected rats excrete the parasite in their feces. Rarely, rats People who accidentally come into contact with A. cantonensis can also become infected. The worm is capable of triggering dangerous inflammation of the brain and the membranes that cover it, the meninges, a condition called meningoencephalitis. Concerned that rat lungworm may have continued its spread across the Southeast, Gottdenker’s team collected tissue samples “from 33 wild brown rats found dead between 2019 and 2022 on the grounds of a zoological facility located in Atlanta,” they reported. Approximately one-fifth of the rats showed signs of some type of parasite in heart, lung arteries and brain tissue. In four of the seven samples, an identical strain of A. cantonensis was identified. All this suggests that “the zoonotic parasite was introduced and has established itself in a new area of the southeastern United States,” the research team concluded. Additionally, “because A. cantonensis was previously identified in rats in the neighboring states of Florida and Alabama, it is likely that A. cantonensis populations were in Georgia long before 2019, when the first positive rat was identified in Atlanta,” the study authors added. In addition, infections with the worm have been identified in captive wildlife throughout the Southeast and in a Mississippi red kangaroo, according to the report .The cause of the recent spread? Climate change could be to blame, Atlanta researchers believe. Human interference and “climate-induced changes in local food webs” could be introducing and favoring new species of snails that carry the parasite, they suggested. The spread of A. cantonensis now represents “a possible threat to the health of humans and domestic animals, free and captive,” the team warned. Doctors and veterinarians should consider infection with the parasite as a possible diagnosis for any case of meningoencephalitis, Gottdenker’s team advised. The report was published Sept. 20 in Emerging Infectious Diseases, a journal from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. US Disease PreventionMore informationLearn more about the warning signs of meningoencephalitis at the Cleveland Clinic.SOURCE: Emerging Infectious Diseases, September 20, 2023.
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