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77 °F Forecast | Road Cams Wednesday, June 2, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend April 24, 2004 Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists Mark Vargas, left, and Steve Niemela perform an autopsy Friday on a cougar killed near Williams. Six of seven dead cougars examined since January have been infected with a parasite. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Parasite infects cougars Six out of seven mountain lions killed by humans in the Rogue Valley since January have the intestinal worm By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Biologists have discovered that some local cougars are carrying a parasitic intestinal worm that experts say could cause feeding and other behavioral changes in infected animals, but there’s no evidence of such changes. The worm, named cylicospirura felineus but commonly called nodular stomach worm, was found in the small intestines of six of the seven human-killed cougars checked in the Rogue Valley since January by state wildlife biologists. The Rogue Valley and Douglas County, which is the first place in Oregon where the parasites were discovered two years ago, are the only places in the state where biologists have looked for them. The worms imbed themselves into intestinal walls and create swollen nodules, Vargas said. Of those sampled locally, the nodules ranged in size from as small as the size of a pencil eraser to as large as a Ping-Pong ball, ODFW biologist Mark Vargas said. The infected local cougars were of various sizes and levels of health, and all but one had empty stomachs — indicating they had not eaten in some time, Vargas said. Advertisement The only infected cougar with food in its stomach was a large male killed Friday while feeding on three miniature horses it recently killed in the Applegate Valley. The one uninfected cougar had a full stomach, signaling what appeared to be a normal feeding pattern on wild prey, Vargas said. Four of the infected animals were killed after complaints of livestock damage in the area, while one was hit by an automobile, Vargas said. Only two were killed by sport-hunters, including the lone uninfected cougar, he said. "It’s new and it’s interesting, but what does it mean? I don’t know," Vargas said. Washington State University parasitology expert Bill Foreyt, who first wrote about the stomach worms in cougars 15 years ago, said it was "very feasible and very possible" that the infected cougars’ crossing paths with sport-hunters or attacking livestock may be linked to the parasites’ presence. Cougars are normally very secretive and are rarely seen in Oregon outside rural or developed areas, and studies show livestock and pets contribute far less to the diet of cougars in general than wild prey. "Parasites weaken animals so they don’t catch what they normally eat," Foreyt said. "There’s always a correlation between an animal not feeling well and its behavior, but in which way is something difficult to tell." However, scientists cannot say for certain that the parasite triggers the infected cougar to eschew wild prey like deer in favor of domesticated animals. "It would be hard to prove it one way or the other," Foreyt said. Rick Hopkins, a wildlife ecologist and cougar expert with The Cougar Fund based in Montana, said he’s "intrigued" with the hypothesis that parasite infestation could play a role in cougar livestock predation. "I’m willing to say that, if a cougar becomes weakened and loses the capability to bring down prey, they’ll start looking for prey like livestock," said Hopkins, who is based in San Jose, Calif. "But we have to get past the idea that there’s one reason cougars prey on livestock," he said. "This may be one contributing factor." Hopkins said it would be "quite a stretch" to correlate any risk to humans from parasite-infected cougars, and that whatever behaviors the infected animals show would not become behavioral changes in the species as a whole. Finding the worms in six of seven cougars was high, Foreyt said, but the sample was far too small to generate any scientific findings. "I hope (the ODFW) will collect more data to see if there’s a correlation or not," he said. Under state statute, ODFW biologists must examine every cougar killed during sport-hunting seasons or because of damage complaints, and the stomachs are occasionally sampled for content, Vargas said. However, these worms went undetected because the nodules are in the upper end of the small intestine — an area not normally sampled, Vargas said. The worms were first found in Oregon in 2002 during necropsies of two cougars that were part of an ongoing study in Douglas County, said DeWaine Jackson, the Roseburg-based ODFW biologist running the cougar study. Since then, biologists have found them in most of the cougars sampled in Douglas County, but deaths attributed to the parasites should be rare, Jackson said. "It’s not common for an internal parasite to kill its host," Jackson said. There is little documentation on these parasites in cougars in the western states, Jackson said. Foreyt said grouse and other birds that cougars occasionally prey on can be hosts of these worms. Vargas said worms could be passed between cougars if they share food or water sources or from contact with each other’s feces. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times