Raccoons Can Catch the Flu

New research shows that raccoons can catch and spread both human and avian strains of influenza.

"I wouldn't be afraid that I would get flu from a raccoon," said Hall, a research virologist with the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, WI. However, his findings point to the possibility that raccoons play a role in the emergence of new strains of influenza, helping bird viruses adapt to be able to infect mammals. That process, which involves the swapping of genes among viruses, is called reassortment and it is one of the ways a strain capable of causing a flu pandemic could arise.

"We're finding out how little we know about the natural ecology of this virus," said Dr. David Halvorson, a veterinarian and avian flu expert at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

In the raccoon study Hall took blood samples that were gathered from a variety of parts of the U.S. and tested them to see if there was evidence of antibodies to flu. The blood samples had been gathered for an earlier study designed to see if raccoons were susceptible to West Nile virus. (They were.) Testing showed evidence of previous infection with several avian flu viruses among a percentage of the raccoons, though that percentage ranged from zero in Texas and California to 12.8 per cent in Colorado and 25 per cent in Wyoming.

"More diseases have been found in raccoons than pretty much any other wild animals. ... You name it, raccoons get it. But they're tough as nails."

Testing showed that infected raccoons were shedding flu viruses - meaning they were infected - but the animals showed no signs of being ill. They also showed that the infected raccoons spread the virus to nearby (non-infected) raccoons. The researchers also looked at tissue from the respiratory tract of adult raccoons and found they contained receptors - sites to which viruses can attach - for both avian and human flu viruses.

The fact that raccoons can be infected with both bird and human flu viruses suggests in theory they could be infected with both at the same time, giving rise to a hybrid virus new enough to humans to cause widespread disease and even a pandemic, Hall and Halvorson said.

It has long been thought that pigs play the pivotal role in developing hybrid flu viruses. In the language of the flu world, pigs are called "the mixing vessel" for the emergence of reassorted pandemic strains.

But Hall said this work suggests there may be other mixing vessels in the animal kingdom. "It turns out that raccoons are just like pigs in that regard. They have the same receptors as pigs do in terms of avian and human viruses."


He said more study should be done on raccoons and other types of small-to mid-sized wild mammals - animals like skunks and minks - that potentially have contact with waterfowl or ponds visited by waterfowl to see if they too catch flu.

"Clearly the ecology of influenza in the wild, out there in the fields and marshes, is complicated," Hall said. "And the focus on waterfowl and shore birds as reservoirs is important, but there's another side of the story that I think needs to be examined. Raccoons being a potential mixing vessel just underscores that other species need to be looked at."

The study will be published in the December issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. A separate study in the same issue reports that red foxes can be infected with the H5N1 avian flu virus, although the Dutch researchers who did the work did not show that deliberately infected foxes could pass the virus to nearby healthy ones.

This article summarized from one published by The Canadian Press, Toronto.




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National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association
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NWRA@nwrawildlife.org

Did feeding the raccoons chicken soup help in any way?

I will fix that problem as soon as the raccoon skins take a price hike. My thinning out of Raccoons will ensure less probability of the spread because they can't catch or spread the disease if harvested.



Line out, sinker attached ,waiting for the

Agreed DONNIE. I have decided to spend as much time as possible barn hunting this year with the terriers. Not unusual to take 10-12 a night and I have heard the prices are gonna make it worth while . I need to learn to properly skin and stretch one however. The local guy takes om on the carcass but carrying them out of the woods would be much easier if it was just the skin rolled up in a bag.

A friend of mine told me about a grain elevator down on the river near his deer hunting property where they shot something like 100 raccoons in one night.

What are the odds those coons will not be infesting the grain elevator with feces, filled with nasty diseases & parasites. Once they are harvested Barb's concerns will be laid to rest and the randy raccoons will not be propagating more diseased off-spring????

DAMN.. at just 10 bucks a pop thats a grand!!! Son watched 13 single file into a hollow tree early one morning while squirrel hunting

This has been a couple years back and I think my friend was lamenting that they weren't even worth picking up.

well even at the low end I bet he woulda gotten 2-3 bucks each. Still pretty good extra ammo money.

Waste not, want not.

I don't think my friend was actually involved in the shooting. As for the people who were, who knows how they valued their time?

Shooting 100 raccoons in one night?? I hope their dicks fall off! That's a fucking massacre, not hunting.

It was intended to be a massacre, not hunting.

BTW...why do you assume the shooters were male?

I knew that would come up after I hit submit. I bet they were though.

You're right. The odds favor you.

But you seemed to not allow for any other possibility.

I wanna play poker with you.