Looking for some info on this subject:

A few years ago a friend of ours was approached by the ministry to save all foxes he shot on his estate in Lanarkshire by freezing them.
They would be collected by a specialist team, who were dressed like someone facing the ebola virus.
After a bit of investigating and copius amounts of the water of life, it loosened the tongues of the men in white coats.
It turns out that throughout Europe the Red Fox (vulpes vulpes) carries a microscopic worm that is present in the hair folicle and once the animal is dead head towards the end of the hair to attach itself to its new host, should this host be human it enters into the blood stream and heads towards the brain where it reproduces and causes an embolism.
Has anyone heard of this?
Or is this just a good o'l scare story!

regards
griff

quote:

Originally posted by griff:
a microscopic worm that is present in the hair folicle and once the animal is dead head towards the end of the hair to attach itself to its new host, should this host be human it enters into the blood stream and heads towards the brain where it reproduces and causes an embolism.

If it requires a brain to have the embolism most stalkers are safe!

In Europe we have the fuchsbandwurm(german name). Almost the same as you discribe but i thought it was going for the liver(correct me if i am wrong).

I think it is worse in the liver than in the brain

Echinococcosis is the name of the lethal liver worm carried over by fox in Europe.

The fleas on the dead fox harbor a stage in the life cycle of the dog tapeworm Echinococcus. When the fleas bite, the dog or fox bites the fleas and swallows some, and the adult tapeworm grows in the gut of the dog/fox/wolf. The barely mobile segments of worm that contain eggs (gravid proglottids)are around the anus of the dog. The larval fleas at the dogs rear-end eat the eggs, and the egg develops into a larva in the fleas. The trouble occurs when the eggs or the gravid proglottid is ingested by humans. The larvae migrate to different body parts and can form large cysts full of a weird type of the young tapeworms. The cyst is called Hydatid disease.
Hope that your cook doesn't scratch his ass if he has tapeworms ( a different type than dog-tapeworm), and get the eggs into your salad! Then you too could get a hydatid-like disease called cystercercosis which can get in your brain,liver, or lungs. But the fleas on the end of the hairs, awaiting another warm body, they can't give it to you (although there are other diseases --like bubonic plague--that can be transmitted by fleas bites). You could get hydatid disease from a family pet or from wild canids only by you swallowing the eggs of the dog tapeworm.