Three young mountain goats with a highly contagious viral skin infection have been found this winter on popular Juneau hiking trails.
The infection, which can transfer to humans and pets, is called contagious ecthyma. Skin lesions form around the mouth, eyes and nose. It’s usually mild in humans and dogs, but it’s typically more severe and fatal in lambs and goat kids.
Carl Koch is the Juneau area biologist at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. He said a hiker found the third mountain goat kid dead on Perseverance Trail in mid-March.
“It was on the trail in a steep area, and the hiker used sticks or something so that they didn’t touch it, and kind of shoved it over the edge so that nobody else’s dog would run into it,” he said.
In January, ADF&G euthanized a mountain goat kid with advanced stages of ecthyma that a hiker had found and taken home from the same trail. The month prior, another was found dead on the nearby Flume Trail.
In people, the infection is called orf and is typically mild. If a person is infected, a lesion usually appears within a week of exposure. It’s not fatal to humans or dogs, and skin lesions typically go away on their own after several weeks.
The city’s Parks and Recreation Department is working with ADF&G to post signs about ecthyma on highly trafficked trails where infected goats have been seen to educate the public.
“We just really want people to know how contagious this stuff is, and primarily keep their dogs away from these goats, because the goats can transmit it to the dogs, and the dogs can transmit it to humans, and there’s no real cure for this stuff, as far as I know,” said Marc Wheeler, director of Juneau Parks and Recreation.
Wheeler said signs are up already on the Flume and Mount Roberts trailheads, and the department is putting more up at the Perseverance, Sheep Creek and West Peak trailheads this week. He recommends hikers keep dogs on-leash.
Fish and Game requests that people report ecthyma cases to the wildlife disease surveillance hotline at 907-328-8354 or by emailing dfg.dwc.vet@alaska.gov or calling the local ADF&G office. People can also report sick or injured wild animals through the department’s web form.
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