New York
Related: About this forumTicks can carry more than Lyme disease
Claire Hughes
As if the threat of Lyme disease weren't enough, a new study finds that a deer tick carrying the potentially debilitating illness has a good chance of toting some other malady, too and that may be especially true if the tick hails from the suburbs.
One-third of ticks infected with Lyme disease in Dutchess County, a Hudson Valley area with high rates of tick-borne illness, were also infected with another pathogen, according to research conducted by scientists at Bard College, Sarah Lawrence College and the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. The researchers collected thousands of deer, or blacklegged, ticks, from more than 150 sites in Dutchess County.
Doctors, patients and scientists have long known about the chance of getting multiple infections from a single tick, and the threat of co-infections has been part of a decades-old controversy over how to test for and treat tick-borne illness.
New to this study, said co-author Felicia Keesing, is that the small mammals the ticks feed on also carry multiple infections. This means that the tick isn't getting different infections from multiple sources it's getting two and sometimes three infections from the same mouse or chipmunk.
http://m.timesunion.com/local/article/Ticks-can-carry-more-than-Lyme-disease-5574021.php
grasswire
(50,130 posts)Family members are going to Fire Island in August. Is there a repellant?
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)safeinOhio
(32,461 posts)get some guinea hens. Best tick control in the world.