Echinococcus Fact Sheet

What is Echinococcus? Echinococcus is a genus of tapeworm. Two species of Echinococcus (Echinococcus granulosus, and Echinococcus multilocularis) are known to exist in Montana wildlife. E. multilocularis has been documented in coyotes (SeeSee et al., 1983 and SeeSee et al., 1993) and in foxes (SeeSee et al., 1993) in Montana for several years. Although E. granulosus can be found almost worldwide, adult E. granulosus has only been documented in Montana during the past few years. An article recently published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases describes the prevalence of E. granulosus in wolves (definitive host) and ungulates (intermediate host) in Idaho and Montana (Foreyt et al., 2009). E. multilocularis and E. granulosus differ in morphology, and also in the “typical” hosts that they infect.