Transporting any animal always has concern for disease.High population and over crowding cause's parasites and diseases.A red fox will den when having a litter if that den has been used before by a manged fox that fox will become infected and in return pass her disease off to her young.From then on its just a matter of time.As i have been told some diseases such as mange and distemper can infect the ground up to two years. I've never have seen a gray fox with mange.maybe because thier fur is to course.

Just to clarify a point.Mange is not a disease."Mange" is the visiable result of a parasitic infestation.Grey fox are not susseptable to mange because they are not suitable hosts,nothing to do with there fur

Well maybe i could be mistaken but listed under Disease control mangement its listed along with DISTEMPER and RABIES which threatens human life.As far as gray fox not being suitable hosts my understanding is because of the courseness of thier fur and diffrence in thier environment.

I stand corrected,on the disease comment.Mange,the condition resulting from an infestation of sarcoptic mites is a disease by deffinition.The loss of fur or hair is one of the more visiable symptoms of such an infestation.

I doubt that fur quality in unto itself has much to with why Gray fox don't get mange. The Gray fox is outside of the host range for these mites. Think of immune system components, either innate or acquired; I'd put my money on innate features...basic biochemial composition of the Grays...genetics and all.

Tom: How long would an "infested" den harbor these mites without a host.

-- Hal

I don't know. I wonder what sort of dormancy features these things have. Most stages of the life cycle, if not all are host associated. Once the host is gone the mites die rapidly. There probably are some weather related exceptions, e.g. rapid and low temperture freezes. I'll see if I can find some info on the survival rates absent a warm host. I'm guessing hours too days.

There are a number of "incomplete" hosts; man for example. Humans with intact immune systems can harbor the mites but APPEAR to inhibit completetion of the reproductive cycle. Therfore, in healthy man, infestation is only a locatized and limited disease. In immunocompromised individuals sarcoptic mite infestations have resulted in death. My point being if there was a warm mamalian body around the den to "provide shelter" so to speak the mites my survive much too somewhat longer.

OK I'm back from the library. The best information I have at hand indicates that gravid females (the longest free living forms of the creature) may survive,"away from the host for extended periods of as long as two days". This data is for Sarcoptes scabiei var hominis; the human variety of S.scabiei. It is possible that other varieties have different survival kinetics. I doubt that any increases in longevity would approximate an order of magnitude.

Here's some interesting information!
http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/sarcoptic_mange_mite.htm

I trapped some coon and a yote or two with what appeared to me to be the mange. These animals were on the borderline of a large trailer park area with lots of free roaming dogs. Caught several really nice reds in same area and a few coons that still had tail fur. One of my dogs is half chow and half yote and she got it but the other two dogs with less yote blood did not??? Anyhow, after several treatments with Ivemec, her hair is slowly coming back...I handled manged animals with disposable gloves and put them in a burn pile for disposal, and boiled and dipped the affected traps.