A British dog has been infected with blood-sucking worms that can grow up to 5in and make the jump to humans — where they can cause blindness.
The case, detailed in a Government report, is a UK first and appears to be linked to the animal’s owner giving it a trendy raw food diet.
The uncooked nature of the meat in raw food diets means supplies run the risk of being infected with parasites or pathogens.
While cases of the parasite, called Linguatula serrata, have been recorded in Britain before, these were all in canines imported to the UK from countries where the infection is more common.
In contrast, the most recent case was in a dog that had never left Britain.
Humans can get infected with the worms by coming into contact with the saliva, mucus of faeces of an infected pet.
From there, the parasites can latch on to the back of the throat or potentially pass into the gut and burrow into other tissues, causing a host of potential problems like breathing difficulties, agonising pain and vision loss.
In rare cases, the worms have even been found in people’s eyes.
A British dog has been struck with an infection of disgusting blood sucking ‘tongue worms’ which can make the jump to humans. Pictured the Linguatula serrata parasite
Experts were unable to determine how exactly the dog was infected, nor did they detail exactly where in the country this case occurred.
Infection in dogs can occur when they consume the faeces of an infected animal which is abundant with eggs hatched by the worms.
It can also happen if a dog were to eat the meat of an infected animal.
People can be infected with the worms by eating undercooked meats, but also through food accidentally contaminated with infected faeces as well as by the saliva and snot of the pets.
In humans, juvenile worms can latch onto the surface of the throat or crawl up there from the stomach, this is called linguatulosis.
Symptoms of this include excessive mucous, irritation, bleeding in the throat, frequent sneezing and breathing difficulties.
Human infection can also cause a condition called visceral pentastomiasis where ingested worm eggs hatch in the gut and burrow into other tissues like the body’s lymph nodes, liver, lungs and eyes.
Symptoms of this condition vary depending on where the worm larvae — called ‘nymphs’ — end up.
The case, detailed in a Government report, is a UK first and appears to be linked to the pooch’s owner giving it a trendy raw food diet with Brits have previously been warned such diets could pose a public health risk. Stock image
They include abdominal pain, a chronic cough, and night sweats as well as eye pain and vision loss if the nymphs happen to hatch in a person’s eye.
However, in many infections, no symptoms develop at all, and the presence of the worms is only revealed during an un-related medical test or even an autopsy.
Medics typically only treat visceral pentastomiasis patients if the parasites are causing symptoms as otherwise the nymphs die off about two years after they hatch.
While cases in all ages have been reported, children are typically considered more vulnerable to infection due to a more carefree attitude to hygiene around family pets.
Infection in pets is typically avoided by ensuring meat fed to them is either frozen or cooked correctly.
In the new case, which was recorded in March last year, UK officials said the risk of human infection was reduced by treating the dog and advising the owner to stop feeding it raw food.
Despite being called tongue worms, Linguatula serrata doesn’t actually infect the tongue, instead latching on to tissue further down the throat.
Its common name instead refers to how the physical shape of the creature resembles a ‘tongue’.
Nor are they technically ‘worms’. The creatures are actually a bizarre relative of insects, spiders and crustaceans.
