Scientists have found that the cause of death of beached otters is toxoplasmosis. This was reported by the University of California at Davis.
Sea otters or sea otters are aquatic mammals related to river otters. In the wild, they live in the Far East, in the Pacific Ocean between Alaska and the Kuril Islands. Between 2020 and 2022, four otters came ashore in western North America.
Now scientists afflicted Autopsies revealed the cause of death. All of them turned out to be suffering from fatty tissue inflammation, and further analysis showed that they were sick with toxoplasmosis, a disease caused by a single-celled parasite. Toxoplasma gondii. It is a common parasite of wild and domestic cats and is shed in their feces. Although people rarely experience any symptoms, toxoplasmosis can cause miscarriages and neurological problems.
A large number of parasites were observed in the body, except for the brain, the defeat of which in otters often leads to death. DNA analysis revealed a rare strain of Toxoplasma called COUG in all four cases. This species was first discovered in 1995 while watching an outbreak in nearby humans in Canadian cougars. Sea otters are particularly vulnerable to Toxoplasma infection because they live close to shorelines where the parasite can reach them via stormwater runoff, and because they eat marine invertebrates that can concentrate the parasites.
“It was a complete surprise,” said Karen Shapiro of the University of California, Davis. “The COUG genotype has never been previously identified in sea otters, the California coastal environment, or any other aquatic mammal or bird.”
Scientists are concerned that it could pose a risk to public health if it contaminates the environment and the marine food chain.
No cases of human infection with this strain have been reported to date.