Department of Comparative Medicine School of Medicine University of Washington Seattle, WA 98368 email: rausch@uw.edu

Primary research includes zoonotic diseases and the natural history and taxonomy of their mammalian hosts. Field and laboratory investigations have emphasized various diseases, including rabies, brucellosis, and tularemia, that affect indigenous peoples in the Arctic and Subarctic. Since 1950, sustained research has concerned cestodes of the genus Echinococcus, each species of which causes a distinctive disease in people. Investigations begun in 1950 on St. Lawrence Island (Bering Sea) led to recognition of E. multilocularis as an independent species, resolving a century-long controversy as to the etiology of alveolar echinococcosis, and to elucidation of the natural cycle of that cestode. From 1970 to 1996, in collaboration with physicians at the Alaska Native Medical Center (Anchorage), investigations concerned methods of diagnosis, chemotherapy, and prevention of alveolar echinococcosis. Related studies were also undertaken in the field in Japan, People's Republic of China, and NE Siberia (in collaboration with V. R. Rausch). Since 1950 also, the investigation of cystic echinococcosis has been conducted concurrently. In 1972, a neotropical species, E. vogeli, was described by Rausch and Bernstein from a wild canid, Speothos venaticus, captured in Ecuador. In collaboration with A. D'Alessandro, Tulane University, and V. R. Rausch, the cycle was defined during the late 1970's in Colombia. Polycystic echinococcosis caused by that cestode is now known to be a severe disease occurring in people in northern countries of South America, and as far north as Panama. A project in progress since 1949 concerns cestodes (Diphyllobothriidae) transmitted from fishes to people and other mammals, and to piscivorous birds, mainly in the northern hemisphere. Several new species, some occurring in people, have been described in Alaska. Basic investigations on the taxonomy of helminths and of mammals are continuing.

Recent publications

Rausch, R. L. and V. R. Rausch. 1997. Evidence for specific independence of the shrew (Mammalia:Soricidae) of St. Paul Island (Pribilof Islands, Bering Sea). Zeitschrift fuer Saeugetierkunde 62:193-202.

Rausch, R. L. and F. H. Fay. 2002. Epidemiology of alveolar echinococcosis, with reference to St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea. Pp. 309-325, in Cestode Zoonoses: echinococcosis and cysticercosis. An emergent and global problem. P. Craig and Z. Pawlowski (eds.). NATO Science Series, IOS Press, Amsterdam.

Rausch, R. L. 2003. Taenia pencei sp. n. from the ringtail, Bassariscus astutus (Carnivora:Procyonidae) in Texas. Comparative Parasitology 70:1-10.

Rausch, R. L. 2003. Cystic echinococcosis in the Arctic and Subarctic. Parasitology (supplement) 127:S73-S85.

D'Alessandro, A. and R. L. Rausch. 2004. Erroneous reports of the neotropical Echinococcus oligarthrus as a cause of echinococcosis in India. Journal of Parasitology 90:202-203.