Tracking the OE parasite in Monarchs: A Community Science Initiative

In 2024 BBEMA joined Project Monarch Health which is a community science project working to track the prevalence of the protozoan parasite Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) in monarch butterflies in North America.

The program was started in 2006 by Dr. Sonia Altizer and then-undergraduate student Natalie Kolleda Tarpein (now a science teacher in SC), and since then has received over 90,000 samples from volunteers all over the US and Canada.

This long-term, widespread data allows scientists to better understand where and when this parasite is likely to be the most prevalent. Although this parasite does not infect humans, it can make butterflies very sick. Monarchs infected with OE may be too weak to emerge properly from their chrysalides, resulting in deformed wings and an inability to fly. In other cases, infected monarchs can look completely normal but cannot fly as well or live as long as healthy monarchs. Because monarchs are migratory, this can impact their ability to complete their journey down to Mexico, where they hibernate during the winter.