[en] The geographic range of the zoonotic raccoon roundworm (Baylisascaris procyonis) is
expanding together with the range of its host, the raccoon (Procyon lotor). This creates
a new public health risk in parts of Europe where this parasite was previously absent. In
the Netherlands, a raccoon population is becoming established and incidental findings
of B. procyonis have been reported. To assess the risk to public health, the prevalence
of B. procyonis was determined in the province of Limburg, where currently the largest
Dutch raccoon population is present, as well as in the adjoining region of southern Belgium. Furthermore, genetic methods were employed to assess invasion pathways of
both the raccoon and B. procyonisto aid in the development of control measures.
Macroscopic analysis of intestinal content and testing of faecal samples were performed to detect B. procyonis adults and eggs. The population genetics of both B. procyonis and its raccoon host were analysed using samples from central and northwestern
Europe.
B. procyonis was found in 14/23 (61%, 95% CI: 41%–78%) raccoons from Limburg,
but was not detected in 50 Belgian raccoons. Genetic analyses showed that the majority of the Dutch raccoons and their roundworms were introduced through ex-captive
individuals.
As long as free-living raccoon populations originate from captivity, population control methods may be pursued. However, natural dispersal from the border regions will
complicate prolonged population control. To reduce the public health risk posed by B.
procyonis, public education to increase awareness and adapt behaviour towards raccoons is key
Disciplines :
Veterinary medicine & animal health
Author, co-author :
Maas, Miriam
Tatem-Dokter, Rea
M. Rijks, Jolianne
Dam-Deisz, Cecile
Franssen, Frits
Hester van Bolhuis, Hester
Heddergott, Mike
Schleimer, Anna
Schockert, Vinciane
Lambinet, Clotilde
Hubert, Pauline
Redelijk, Thomas
Janssen, René
Lopes Cruz, Ana Paula
Campos Martinez, Irène
Caron, Yannick
Linden, Annick ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des maladies infectieuses et parasitaires (DMI) > Santé et pathologies de la faune sauvage
Lesenfants, Christophe ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des maladies infectieuses et parasitaires (DMI) > Santé et pathologies de la faune sauvage
Paternostre, Julien ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des maladies infectieuses et parasitaires (DMI) > Santé et pathologies de la faune sauvage
Allen, A., & Ridley, D. (1970). Further observations on the formol-ether concentration technique for faecal parasites. Journal of Clinical Pathology, 23(6), 545. https://doi.org/10.1136/jcp.23.6.545
Anonymous. (2004). Report of the WHO/FAO/OIE joint consultation on emerging zoonotic diseases. Geneva.
Belkhir, K., Borsa, P., Chikhi, L., Raufaste, N., & Bonhomme, F. (2004). GENETIX 4.05, logiciel sous Windows TM pour la génétique des populations. Université de Montpellier II CNRS UMR 5000.
Conraths, F. (1996). Arbeitsplatzbedingte Infektionen des Menschen mit dem Waschbarspulwurm Baylisascaris procyonis. Arbeitsmed. Sozialmed. Umweltmed., 31, 13–17.
Delbroek, R., & Janssen, R. (2018). Wasbeer in de grensregio – Monitoring in het oostelijke deel van Nederlands Limburg – situatie tot begin oktober 2018.
Dunbar, M., Lu, S., Chin, B., Huh, L., Dobson, S., Al-Rawahi, G. N., Morshed, M. G., & Vanden Driessche, K. (2019). Baylisascariasis: A young boy with neural larva migrans due to the emerging raccoon round worm. Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, 6(2), 397–400. https://doi.org/10.1002/acn3.694
Dutch Wildlife Health Centre (DWHC). (2014). Second raccoon found to be infected with raccoon roundworm (Baylisascaris procyonis). https://www.dwhc.nl/en/second-raccoon-with-raccoon-roundworm/
Regulation (EU) No 1143/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2014 on the prevention and management of the introduction and spread of invasive alien species (2014).
Fischer, M. L., Hochkirch, A., Heddergott, M., Schulze, C., Anheyer-Behmenburg, H. E., Lang, J., Michler, F.-U., Hohmann, U., Ansorge, H., Hoffmann, L., Klein, R., & Frantz, A. C. (2015). Historical invasion records can be misleading: Genetic evidence for multiple introductions of invasive raccoons (Procyon lotor) in Germany. Plos One, 10(5), e0125441. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0125441
Fischer, M. L., Sullivan, M. J., Greiser, G., Guerrero-Casado, J., Heddergott, M., Hohmann, U., Keuling, O., Lang, J., Martin, I., Michler, F.-U., Winter, A., & Klein, R. (2016). Assessing and predicting the spread of non-native raccoons in Germany using hunting bag data and dispersal weighted models. Biological Invasions, 10(1), 57–71. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0125441
Franssen, F., Xie, K., Sprong, H., & van der Giessen, J. (2013). Molecular analysis of Baylisascaris columnaris revealed mitochondrial and nuclear polymorphisms. Parasites & Vectors, 6(1), 124. https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-6-124
Gavin, P. J., Kazacos, K. R., Tan, T. Q., Brinkman, W. B., Byrd, S. E., Davis, A. T., Mets, M. B., & Shulman, S. T. (2002). Neural larva migrans caused by the raccoon roundworm Baylisascaris procyonis. Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, 21(10), 971–975. https://doi.org/10.1097/00006454-200210000-00017
Gey, A. B. (1998). Synopsis der Parasitenfauna des Waschbären (Procyon Iotor) unter Berücksichtigung von Befunden aus Hessen. Justus Liebig-Universität Giessen.
Goudet, J. (1995). FSTAT (version 1.2): A computer program to calculate F-statistics. Journal of Heredity, 86(6), 485–486. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a111627
Hardy, O. J., & Vekemans, X. (2002). SPAGeDi: A versatile computer program to analyse spatial genetic structure at the individual or population levels. Molecular Ecology Notes, 2(4), 618–620. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1471-8278.2002.00305.x
Heddergott, M., Steinbach, P., Schwarz, S., Anheyer-Behmenburg, H. E., Sutor, A., Schliephake, A., Jeschke, D., Striese, M., Müller, F., Meyer-Kayser, E., Stubbe, M., Osten-Sacken, N., Krüger, S., Gaede, W., Runge, M., Hoffmann, L., Ansorge, H., Conraths, F. J., & Frantz, A. C. (2020). Geographic distribution of raccoon roundworm, Baylisascaris procyonis, Germany and Luxembourg. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 26(4), 821. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2604.191670
Küchle, M., Knorr, H. L., Medenblik-Frysch, S., Weber, A., Bauer, C., & Naumann, G. O. (1993). Diffuse unilateral subacute neuroretinitis syndrome in a German most likely caused by the raccoon roundworm, Baylisascaris procyonis. Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology, 231(1), 48–51. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01681701
Lammertsma, D., Bruinderink, G. G., & Broekhuizen, S. (2008). Wasberen (Procyon lotor L. 1758) in Nederland: verspreiding, ecologie en mogelijke gevolgen voor Nederland. Number: 1566–7197. Alterra, Wageningen. https://www.wur.nl/nl/Publicatie-details.htm?publicationId=publication-way-333638323633
Maas, M., Mulder, J., Montizaan, M., Dam-Deisz, C. W. D., Jaarsma, R. I., Takumi, K., van Roon, A., F.F.J., F., & van der Giessen, J. W. B. (2018). Zoönotische pathogenen bij de wasbeerhond en wasbeer in Nederland (Zoonotic pathogens in raccoon dogs and raccoons in the Netherlands). Number: 2017-0200. RIVM, Bilthoven. http://hdl.handle.net/10029/621646
Manel, S., Berthier, P., & Luikart, G. (2002). Detecting wildlife poaching: Identifying the origin of individuals with Bayesian assignment tests and multilocus genotypes. Conservation Biology, 16(3), 650–659. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.2002.00576.x
Miller, S., Dykes, D., & Polesky, H. (1988). A simple salting out procedure for extracting DNA from human nucleated cells. Nucleic Acids Research, 16(3), 1215. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/16.3.1215
Nei, M. (1978). Estimation of average heterozygosity and genetic distance from a small number of individuals. Genetics, 89(3), 583–590. https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/89.3.583
Newcombe, R. G. (1998). Two-sided confidence intervals for the single proportion: Comparison of seven methods. Statistics in Medicine, 17(8), 857–872. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0258(19980430)17:8<857::aid-sim777>3.0.co;2-e
Osten-Sacken, N., Heddergott, M., Schleimer, A., Anheyer-Behmenburg, H. E., Runge, M., Horsburgh, G. J., Camp, L., Nadler, S. A., & Frantz, A. C. (2018). Similar yet different: Co-analysis of the genetic diversity and structure of an invasive nematode parasite and its invasive mammalian host. International Journal for Parasitology, 48(3–4), 233–243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpara.2017.08.013
Page, K., Beasley, J. C., Olson, Z. H., Smyser, T. J., Downey, M., Kellner, K. F., McCord, S. E., Egan, T. S. 2nd, & Rhodes, O. E. Jr. (2011). Reducing Baylisascaris procyonis roundworm larvae in raccoon latrines. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 17(1), 90–93. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1701.100876
Page, L. K. (2013). Parasites and the conservation of small populations: The case of Baylisascaris procyonis. International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife, 2, 203–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijppaw.2013.05.003
Page, L. K., Gehrt, S. D., Titcombe, K. K., & Robinson, N. P. (2005). Measuring prevalence of raccoon roundworm (Baylisascaris procyonis): a comparison of common techniques. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 33(4), 1406–1412. https://doi.org/10.2193/0091-7648(2005)33[1406:MPORRB]2.0.CO;2
Pritchard, J. K., Stephens, M., & Donnelly, P. (2000). Inference of population structure using multilocus genotype data. Genetics, 204(2), 391–393. https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.116.195164
Rentería-Solís, Z., Birka, S., Schmäschke, R., Król, N., & Obiegala, A. (2018). First detection of Baylisascaris procyonis in wild raccoons (Procyon lotor) from Leipzig, Saxony, Eastern Germany. Parasitology Research, 117(10), 3289–3292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-018-5988-2
Salgado, I. (2018). Is the raccoon (Procyon lotor) out of control in Europe? Biodiversity and Conservation, 27(9), 2243–2256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-018-1535-9
Sorvillo, F., Ash, L. R., Berlin, O. G., & Morse, S. A. (2002). Baylisascaris procyonis: An emerging helminthic zoonosis. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 8(4), 355–359. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid0804.010273
Umhang, G., Duchamp, C., Boucher, J.-M., Ruette, S., Boué, F., & Richomme, C. (2020). Detection of DNA from the zoonotic raccoon roundworm Baylisascaris procyonis in a French wolf. Parasitology International, 78, 102155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.parint.2020.102155
Weir, B. S., & Cockerham, C. C. (1984). Estimating F-statistics for the analysis of population structure. Evolution, 38(6), 1358–1370. https://doi.org/10.2307/2408641
Wise, M. E., Sorvillo, F. J., Shafir, S. C., Ash, L. R., & Berlin, O. G. (2005). Severe and fatal central nervous system disease in humans caused by Baylisascaris procyonis, the common roundworm of raccoons: A review of current literature. Microbes and Infection, 7(2), 317–323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micinf.2004.12.005