Ticks that Transmit Lyme Disease Reported in 48.6% of U.S. Counties
[CanLyme note: A good take home message from this article linked below is that for government to focus heavily on only known areas where ticks are established, is misguided. Canada is comprised of millions of square kilometers. Less than one percent of one percent are looked at for Lyme disease in nature. If you have robins or other migratory birds, including quail, in your community you potentially have Lyme disease close by. Canada expects the annual number of human cases to explode into the tens of thousands over the next 4 years (by 2020 about 15,000 per year which may be optimistic). Canadian researcher John Scott has clearly shown over many years and 25 published papers the relationship between migratory birds and Lyme disease, yet not one Canadian physician that we have found knows this information. They still tell patients that Lyme disease is rare or not in their area (and of course, a negative test proves a person does not have Lyme… another fallacy.]
“But, blacklegged ticks aren’t the only tick species that plays a role in the Lyme disease story. Researchers at Old Dominion University in Virginia are focusing on another tick, Ixodes affinis, that can also serve as a vector for Lyme disease.”
” But why should we care about ticks on birds, especially if those ticks don’t bite us? Because birds travel, sometimes very far, and they take their ticks and tick-borne pathogens with them.”
