Nearly every racoon in North America is a carrier of roundworms. Their eggs are nearly impossible to kill, and if you ingest them, they hatch in your intestines and begin migrating through the rest of your body, resulting in severe and sometimes fatal neurological damage.
Ive been fixated on the domesticated raccoon idea since I was a child and the disease reservoir problem is what really killed the fantasy for me.
Roundworms and they’re also a reservoir for rabies. It would be impossible to prevent the domesticated raccoons from interacting with local wild raccoons, so there really isnt anything that can improve the situation.
Its worth noting about 60% of infectious diseases are zoonotic, and every additional domestic species increases the routes existing viruses can take to evolve into infecting humans. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8808746/
> Ive been fixated on the domesticated raccoon idea since I was a child
When I was about 12, I spent a summer volunteering at an Audubon Society program. Among my other responsibilities was caring for a litter of four orphaned raccoon babies (kits).
They were just like kittens or puppies. Adorable, sweet, friendly, funny, amazing. They'd climb on you, ride on your shoulder, loved to run and play. My favorite part was their hands/feet, which were always surprisingly cool to the touch.
I desperately wanted to take one, or all four, home with me at the end of the summer.
In retrospect, I'm not sure if the Audubon Society adults had a plan, per se -- the kits were found orphaned and brought in by someone. But the stated intention was to reintroduce them to the wild at the end of the summer, when they were old enough. I'm not sure whether that happened, and not at all sure it would have been successful, but these are the harsh understandings of adulthood.
(PS: I do not have, nor have I ever had, roundworms. I do not doubt the commentariat-wisdom here, but FWIW these kits were apparently clean.)
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We also had a great horned owl who had been at the facility for a few years, due to a permanent wing injury. He generally preferred to be left alone (and that was respected), but he greatly enjoyed being fed mealworms from (a gloved) hand.
> I desperately wanted to take one, or all four, home with me at the end of the summer.
Had you read about pet raccoon attacks your mind would have been changed. They're definitely not suitable pets even though the kits are very charismatic. (I'd classify them in the same bucket as people who try to keep chimpanzees as pets... That works out tragically for all parties involved too.)
The difference is that other domestic animals do not have wild counterparts with rabies that live in our backyards, constantly trying to socialize and mate with (infect) them.
There is hope though, the feds have been working to eliminate rabies in raccoons for a couple decades now.
While this, and of course antibiotic tolerance in bacteria is a concern, it doesn't validate that Raccoons should be shied away from domestication. All it would mean is, if it comes to this, killing all cats and dogs.
(Because, releasing billions of cats and dogs would leave them starving to death)
Note the "procyonis", ie raccoon roundworm. The procyonis version is indeed terrible, easily among the worst parasites a human could encounter.
Whether, as one comment suggested, every raccoon is positive, is debatable. I sure hope not, and would definitely expect cohabitating or proximal wildlife to exhibit symptoms, which has been observed, notably in squirrels, but not as frequently as one would expect if it were half as pervasive as most or 'every'.
But the risk is severe where present, necessitating the destruction of tools that make contact with feces. This worm is quite comfortable in both formaldehyde and subzero temperatures for months or years, remaining infectious. Extremely adhesive and generally not to be fucked with.
Edit: expect racoons to start harboring angiostrongyloids now, especially in Florida. Cuban tree frogs and snails certainly being on their menu, as well as being primary vectors. This worm has similar appetite for flesh, favoring the brain too, but is much smaller and less dramatic than baylis. Regardless, expect parasites to be an increasing problem.
Just going off of this one thing the worm can't survive is high temperatures and spice. I find raccoon meat goes particularly well with east asian cuisine, a cuisine which is far more open minded regarding nontraditional meat sources. My raccoon ovary drunken noodle is to die for, and packs a lot of heat! No parasite survives the wok!
The efficacy of administering advice to the clinically insane remains unknown to me.
However, you could marinate this shit in resiniferatoxin, bring it to a boil and leave it sitting in the desert sun for a year and it would remain infectious. Don't consume it, or more importantly, do not handle it.
Wouldn’t this be an argument for domestication? They can easily be treated if they’re pets. If they’re carriers it’s far better for them to be treated than wandering around outside your house shitting wherever they want.
