ticks

The United States And Ticks | Earth Wise

July 21, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Tiny ticks are a big problem. Measuring only three to five millimeters in size, ticks are widely distributed around the world. They are external parasites, feasting on the blood of birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals – including humans.

According to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ticks infect more than 300,000 people with Lyme disease in the United States every year, and the numbers continue to rise. Other common tick-borne diseases include anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and powassan encephalitis.

But while the prevalence of tick-borne illnesses has steadily increased in the United States over the past two decades, a new study on tick surveillance and control “has revealed an inconsistent and often under-supported patchwork of programs across the country.”

The study, by university researchers at the CDC’s five Vector-Borne Disease Regional Centers of Excellence, is the first-ever examination of tick management programs in the United States. The researchers found clear gaps in our public health infrastructure.

According to the study, which was recently published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, less than 50% of public health and vector-control agencies conduct tick surveillance. Only 25% test ticks for disease-causing germs. And only 12% conduct or support tick-control efforts. Researchers also discovered that the capacity for public tick-control efforts is low, as is the capacity for information and data sharing between agencies on ticks.

The findings highlight the degree to which tick surveillance and control is lagging in the United States. According to the research team, greater support for tick-management programs is critical, and they hope their findings will serve as a baseline from which to measure future improvements.

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Tick surveillance and control lagging in US

Photo, posted May 4, 2009, courtesy of Jerry Kirkhart via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Tick Project

September 12, 2016 By WAMC WEB

Tiny ticks are a big problem. Anyone taking a walk in the woods is advised to do a tick check. Ticks infect more than 325,000 people with Lyme disease each year, and this number continues to rise.

[Read more…] about The Tick Project

Acorns And Lyme Disease

November 20, 2015 By WAMC WEB

In New York’s Hudson Valley, it’s hard to go outside without stepping on an acorn. Oaks have ‘boom and bust’ acorn production cycles. In lean years, trees produce a handful of nuts. In boom years, acorns seem to rain down from the sky. We are currently experiencing an acorn bumper-crop, or what ecologists call a ‘mast’ year.

In some forests, there can be more than 100 acorns per square meter. This is welcome news to animals like mice, chipmunks, and squirrels. They can gorge on the bounty and stock their larders. Acorn caches help wildlife avoid predators and survive the lean months of winter. They even give well-fed rodents a jump-start on the breeding season.

For this reason, acorn “mast” years are also harbingers of future Lyme disease risk. In the summer following acorn booms, white-footed mouse numbers explode. In New York’s Hudson Valley, these mice play a major role in infecting blacklegged ticks with the agents that cause Lyme disease, Babesiosis, and Anaplasmosis.

Cary Institute disease ecologist Rick Ostfeld explains.

“The ticks that are emerging as larvae in August – just as the mice and chipmunks are reaching their population peaks – they have tons of excellent hosts to feed from. They survive well and they get infected with tick-borne pathogens. And that means that two years following a good acorn crop we see high abundance of infected ticks, which represents a risk of human exposure to tick borne disease.”

Predictions are based on 20 years of field studies that have confirmed the relationship among acorn mast years, mouse outbreaks, and the prevalence of infected ticks. Mark your calendars – 2017 will likely be a bad year for Lyme disease.

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Web Extra

Full interview with Rick Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

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Biodiversity Is Good For Us

August 26, 2015 By EarthWise

There are many reasons to protect Earth’s biodiversity. One of the more underrated is that disease incidence is lower when ecosystems support a variety of plants and animals.