No need to worry about getting Covid-19 from a bat in the White Mountains. Or do you plan on catching a bunch and eating them half-raw? That may be how the whole Covid-19 pandemic may have started in China, in one of the exotic “wet-markets” where cultural differences in culinary tastes are front and center in dozens of Farmer’s Market type shops. Exotic animal trading is another leading way to be infected with novel bacteria and viruses, which doesn’t seem to be an issue in our neighborhood.   

So, the only way we can catch the Covid-19 virus is from other humans as far as we know but are there other things we can get from wildlife if we are not careful? Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding – “You bet! “ But anybody who uses common sense and avoids close contact with critters can safely enjoy the species diversity that makes our area so special.

Our relationship with wildlife is probably closer than most folks realize. We think our roofs and windows, central heating and air conditioning isolate us from the wild world. Not so. But the good news is that we’ve been exposed to wildlife for our entire lives and made it this far already. And most diseases or parasites that infect wildlife are specialized for a particular host only so humans either can’t be infected or have very mild, sometimes unnoticed, symptoms.

Actually, many studies have shown that children exposed to bacteria and other bugs early in life don’t have as many asthma problems or other allergies. Early exposures can convey immunity later in life in some cases.

So, if you are curious as to what kinds of diseases we can catch from the White Mountain wildlife and how to avoid them, read on. If you have someone else in your close family who takes care of those duties and you’d rather not know the details, you better skip to the next article right now. No offense taken. Good luck.

The most serious impacts people experience from wildlife in the White Mountains is a literal impact, which unfortunately can be fatal, when elk and deer are struck on the highways. This doesn’t qualify as a disease but could cause more human misery than everything else combined!

So, what are the wildlife diseases we should be aware of? It kind of depends on your lifestyle and the pets you have. Even if you live in town and don’t have any pets going in and out, you could have wild critters making a home of your crawl space or attic with raccoons, skunks and foxes or other wildlife just passing from summer to winter homes. From the perspective of a soaring eagle, most of our homes and roads are just small specks smothered in large expanses of high-quality wildlife habitat.  

A fenced yard may prevent some animals from taking up residence but it’s hard to avoid those pesky mosquitoes -- which can transmit West Nile virus, potentially causing serious infections. Most folks living in the White Mountains are here to enjoy the outdoors and, with increasing populations, there are definitely more opportunities to interact with the local wildlife and for folks to catch zoonoses, or wildlife transmitted diseases.

Probably the most serious disease that occurs most often in the White Mountains is rabies which is fatal if left untreated. Fortunately, there is a cure for it in humans if you get immediate treatment after an exposure. Actually, you need to get the medicine in time for your body to build up an immunity, like it does with vaccines, before the actual rabies virus has time to reproduce and cause irreversible damage. Rabies only infects mammals with bats, raccoons, skunks, foxes, dogs, cats and livestock being the most common vectors to humans.  

The good news according to the Centers for Disease Control is that the number of rabies cases has been decreasing in the United States (US) since 2000. The best way to avoid getting rabies is to make sure your pets are all vaccinated and you avoid getting bitten or having an open wound exposure to a rabid animal. The leading cause of rabies deaths in the US is contact with an infected bat, followed by getting bitten by a dog while out of the country.

Another scary sounding -- and potentially fatal -- disease transmitted by wildlife, in a way, is the plague. But again, this disease is fully treatable with the modern antibiotics that, unfortunately, the folks in Europe and Asia didn’t have during the outbreak of the Black or Bubonic plague in the mid-1300s. In the first possible health related instance of social distancing, sailors were forced to stay on their ships for 40 days when arriving in Italian ports during the outbreak, coining the term “quarantine.”   

Today, wildlife, in particular prairie dogs, can be host to a flea who is host to the bacteria in its gut which infects people when the flea leaves the prairie dog for a human meal. So if you frequent areas with prairie dogs, or your pets do, and you come down with flu-like symptoms or/and with swelling of lymph nodes in the armpits or groin, you will want to see your doctor to get a prescription for an antibiotic. We advise against the internet cures of bloodletting, boil-lancing and bathing in rosewater as those were the rave in the 14th century. Bug repellent on you and flea/tick collars for the dogs are great preventative measures.

A viral disease -- transmitted by another rodent -- is hantavirus, more specifically the Sin Nombre virus, which is spread by the deer mouse whose big ears and eyes make it look cute and harmless. The disease was first monitored by the CDC in the Four Corners region in 1993 during a severe outbreak of lung infections causing over a dozen deaths. Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado have the most reported cases in the US with more than 300 cases combined so far.  

Since the virus is spread through the smallest particles of dried mouse droppings, cleaning old, dark buildings and rooms can cause human infections unless precautions are taken. First, make sure to get rid of the active rodent infestation in the building and ventilate the space with fresh air for at least 30 minutes before you start cleaning. Spray everything down with a one-part bleach to 9-parts water solution to prevent any dust from being stirred up and let sit for five minutes before wiping and sweeping. Gloves and a respirator mask are also recommended by health officials.

An often overlooked zoonoses is giardia -- sometimes referred to as Beaver fever. This little microscopic parasite is found in clean looking water and on surfaces contaminated with infected human or animal fecal matter. Boiling or filtering lake and stream water along with maintaining sanitary conditions around the campsite can prevent the unpleasantries of its explosive gastro-intestinal reactions that can occur. And these little guys don’t mind the White Mountain winters so our freezing temperatures actually allow them to hibernate in the winter to arouse in the spring with an appetite of a hungry black bear.  

This is certainly not a complete list of diseases we can catch from wildlife but hopefully helps to deal with some of the most common and dangerous. Some folks think that chiggers, snakes and poison ivy should make this list but, technically the problems they cause are not diseases, so I guess we can consider them just another challenge to deal with in the woods.

Humans have obviously taken a hit from the Covid-19 virus we caught from a wildlife species but, over the years, the opposite has occurred in many places. Human- transmitted fungi, viruses and bacteria have wiped out many populations of animals, especially amphibians. Fortunately, non-human animals have also helped develop treatments and vaccines for these very same diseases -- reminding us of the importance of all life forms (except maybe those chiggers that get under the beltline!).