After the intial question was raised earlier in the week about whether Coyotes and Wolves were susceptible to Lymes Disease did some hard searching and found a 1972-89 Univerity of Minnesota study evaluating Minnesota and Wisconsin
Wolves susceptibility to becoming infected with this potentially debilitating disease.
Lymes was first diagnosed in humans in 1975 in Lyme, Connecticut..............Since then, as most of know, it has become epidemic in the Northeast and Midwest.............spreading around the USA to most locales to some degree or another. Deer and Mice are primary harbingers of the lyme spirochete(Borrelia burgdoferi) transmitted to it's deer and mice hosts by the Deer tick(ixodes dammini). In humans, fever, paralysis, nerve and heart damage can result if not treated promptly with the proper regime of antibiotics. Known as the great imitator, Lymes is often misdiagnosed by doctors mistakenly thinking that the symptoms are reflective of other ailments.
Aria Thieking and her Vetenarian associates at the U. of Minn collaborated with Wolf biologist David Mech and determined that of the 528 Gray Wolves(C.lupus--perhaps C.lycaon) tested over the 17 year study, roughly 3%(15 Wolves) tested positive for Lymes with a titers measurement of >/= 1:10(note that some researchers feel that you are sero positive at the greater measurement of >/= 1:60).
What effects Lymes have on Wolves was not determined in this study. We do know that dogs develop arthritis and fevers when exposed to Lymes and one would venture a guess that Wolves might also suffer these affilictions. The authors do state that Coyotes, Wolves, Dogs, rabbits and Humans all are suseptible to contracting Lymes.
The age and sex of the wolves in this study were not factors in determing susceptibility to Lymes and the degree to which wild Wolf populations are susceptible to this disease are also currently not known.
Tomorrow I will post a follow up to this study with another evaluation of Wolf suseptibility ot Lymes coming from Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota..............Stay tuned for this evaluation.
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