Spatial Distribut ion

• Main Authors: Main Library, E Fuglei
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Island; Alopex lagopus; Arctic Fox; Canis lupus; Vulpes lagopus; sibling vole; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.621.6138

Echinococcus multilocularis, the sibling vole, has restricted spatial distribution. A survey of feces from the main host, the arctic fox, showed that only the area occupied by the intermediate host is associated with increased risk for hu-man infection. The cestode Echinococcus multilocularis is the causative agent of alveolar echinococcosis, a rare but potentially lethal human disease. In the Arctic, E. multilocularis de-pends on the arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus, formerly Alopex lagopus) or domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) as its defi nitive hosts, and human infections are caused by inges-tion of infective eggs distributed with the feces of these hosts. A wide variety of small rodents, especially voles and lemmings of the subfamily Arvicolinae, can function as intermediate hosts (1,2). In 1999, E. multilocularis was fi rst identifi ed on the Arctic island Spitsbergen, in the Sval-