CPW has kept wolf parasites causing Hydatid disease, which can be lethal to humans, secret from public
By Lindy Browning | Contributing Writer. Rocky Mountain Voice
As if there aren’t enough controversies around the consequences of wolf reintroduction in Colorado — impacts to livestock growers, impacts to deer, elk and other ungulate herds — there is another danger that has gone mostly unspoken by wildlife officials.
This danger is to humans, predominantly children, transferred to them by their beloved pets, after being exposed to the parasite. Echinococcus granulosus is a parasitic tapeworm that transfers to deer, domestic cattle, domestic sheep, elk and moose, along with domestic cattle, sheep, domestic pets and humans.
Interestingly, infestations of the parasites are relatively benign to wolves, but for the ungulates wild and domestic, and pets, the risk of transfer to humans in...