Stopping Disease With Drugged Marshmallows

Let's talk about raccoons. It's not exactly a secret that these midnight bandits can often carry dangerous diseases such a rabies and even parasites. A particularly nasty roundworm parasite has found its way into US raccoons, and now researchers are proposing to combat it with marshmallows, of all things.

That's at least according to a study recently published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, which details how the roundworm parasite Baylisascaris procyonis could be quickly cornered in the United States if experts start leaving marshmallows packed full of medication out for these hungry scavengers.

B. procyonis is a pretty nasty parasite. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this bug finds its way into the body of its victims after its eggs are ingested. As these incredibly tiny eggs can often be found in the feces of infected raccoons, they can then be transmitted to humans who accidentally ingest the feces, which mixes into soil. As young children may occasionally eat dirt, they are the most at risk of such an infection.

Once the ingested eggs hatch they can burrow into a victim's eyes and brain, causing blindness and even death. Thankfully, there have only be 30 US cases of this harmful infection in the past three decades.

Still, to prevent it from occurring in the future, a team of researchers recently studied 60 sites where raccoon sightings are common around the city of Chicago. A stunning 13 percent of the feces collected from these sites contained roundworm eggs.

However, after baiting these sites with drugged marshmallows for about 12 months, that rate of infection dropped to a mere three percent, according to the study.

Research leader Kirisgten Page told NPR that this is a far more environmentally friendly way to prevent infections, whereas current methods actually involve taking blowtorches to heavily infested land.

"The eggs are really resistant to temperature change," Page said. "A Midwestern summer won't kill them and certainly our winters won't kill them."

But marshmallows? They seem to get the job done.

For more great nature science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).