Ticks Life Sucker Essay

A tick does not discriminate against its food source. Many animals in the wild are carriers of such parasites, and one reason the deer is considered a major carrier is that it has limited ability to remove ticks.

A decade long research that ended in earlier months of this year has sequenced the genome of the tick that causes Lyme disease. This allows researchers to understand how ticks acquire and transmit pathogens allowing them to design a strategy to control

Recent research results suggest that ticks must remain attached to a human for 36-48 hours to efficiently transmit B. burgdorferi so early recognition and removal can be effective in preventing Lyme disease (Cook, 2015). Thus, nymphs represent the greatest risk for infection and have been implicated as the vector in the majority of Lyme disease cases in the United States. Although adults can transmit the disease, nymphs, which are about the size of a poppy seed, are relatively undetectable and significantly less likely to be removed within 48 hours of attachment. As a result, most new cases of Lyme disease occur in the summer months between May and August when nymph activity reaches its peak (Marques,

Your chances of acquiring Lyme disease can be greatly affected by where you live or travel to. Many outdoor activities put you at risk. Since deer ticks feed on mice and white-tailed deer, they are most commonly found in heavily wooded areas. Another risk factor of Lyme disease is having exposed skin. Since ticks attach easily to bare skin, being exposed in wooded or grassy areas will increase your risk. If you are bitten by a tick, the final chance of prevention is to remove the tick quickly and properly. In most cases, to infect it’s host, a tick must remain attached to the skin for at least thirty-six hours. If you safely remove the tick

No. There is a multitude of animals that can be infected by Lyme disease including dogs, horses, cattle, etc. but only ticks can spread the infection (Burgdorfer, Barbour, Hayes, Benach, Grunwaldt, & Davis, 1982).

The bite of an infected tick is the primary mode of transmission to humans, or other vertebrate hosts, though it is also possible, but extremely rare for infection to result from exposure to crushed tick tissues, fluids, or feces. (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rmsf/Natural_Hx.htm)

“Lyme disease got its name from where it was first discovered in Lyme, Connecticut in 1975” (healthychildren.org). “Since then there has been thousands of cases reported of the disease. The ticks live in low and high seasonal temperatures and high humidity” (healthychildren.org). Lyme Disease most common to occur in the Northeast, North-central states, or West Coast. On behalf of the Northeast, I can tell you that ticks are everywhere in this region. They like to live in tall grasses and woody areas. “The small insects more than often latch onto the foot or lower leg and crawl up the body, and travel up the body with a destination of the head. On their normal hosts, ticks also usually crawl up; they want to blood feed around the

They contract it when feeding on infected hosts. While deer are most commonly known for giving Lyme disease to ticks, rodents are the main threat. “Ostfeld’s research indicates that white-footed mice infect 75-95 percent of larval ticks that feed on them, while deer only infect about one percent” (Mercola). Urban sprawl and hunting has eliminated many of the mice’s natural predators allowing populations to grow and infected ticks to spread.

According to Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt (a world renowned Lyme expert), Lyme disease is considered the plague of the century due to the large number of people with chronic Lyme disease and the associated co-infections. The number one symptom of Lyme is chronic fatigue. People can have Lyme for a very long time and not be properly diagnosed because current laboratory testing comes up short with being able to detect it. One of the main reasons for this is because chronic Lyme does not live in the blood but rather in the tissues. It is an intracellular organism meaning it lives inside the cell. Lyme has different shapes: spirochete (like a spring), cyst with a hard shell, and acellular (without an outer cell membrane). Lyme likes to set up a sanctuary in the body such as in the brain, teeth (such as under a root canal or in a cavitation), vertebrae, breast tissue, and lymph nodes. It looks for a place where it can be protected and the body is vulnerable preferably in fatty tissue or under a biofilm. While traditionally Lyme disease is considered a tick-borne disease, recent findings have discovered that it is an insect-borne disease that can get transferred

Lymes disease is present here in Nova Scotia and has also affected humans and dogs in different parts of North America. It is one of the most common tick-causing symptoms however only 5-10% of dogs are affected showing different forms of the disease. Living in Lunenburg & Queens County (NS), there seems to be a higher population of deer ticks, as well as other parts of the province. The deer ticks are the primary carrier of the disease. A tick carrying the bacteria (B.burgdorferi) that can cause Lyme disease can transmit it to a dog after filling itself with blood, which takes at least 48 hours. Even if it is attached for 48 hours, the dog may not contract the disease.

Thesis Statement: “According to the Center of Disease Control, Lyme disease is the most commonly reported vector borne illness in the United States”(Lyme Disease: Data and statistics, 2016).

A survey was composed to try to understand whether living around wooded areas could increase susceptibility towards getting Lyme Disease, whether owning outdoor pets was a risk towards getting Lyme Disease, and finally, what type of deer tick preventative measures work best amongst animals. Surveys were collected in two ways: online surveys and telephone surveys. In the end, the results were checked through statistical analysis and proven significant. All the results were posted on the Facebook page.

(CDC, 2015) Female ticks will die in the spring when her eggs burst from her body. These eggs will litter the forest floor and eventually hatch into 6 legged larvae in the summer. These larva then attach to much smaller mammals, such as field mice or small birds. Ticks spend as long as it takes, usually a few days at most, finding the perfect spot to latch on and begin feeding. The larva feed for a few days or until they are full and eventually drop off the host. With their appetite sated, larval ticks will now prepare for their next stage of life. This occurs over the course of the fall and winter time period as ticks burrow underground to retain warmth. They emerge in the spring, this time as 8 legged nymphs and the feeding cycle begins anew. This is also the period where lyme disease becomes an issue. While feeding on smaller animals, ticks contract the disease and they become carriers. They will transmit the disease as nymphs. Like the larvae, a nymph attaches to a larger mammal ranging from squirrels to human beings. Over the course of a few days, the nymph finds a spot to attach and feed. This happens over Spring and Summer. If they wait too long, the nymph will die of starvation. When sated once again, the nymph falls to the forest floor and prepares one more to proceed to the next stage of life. By Autumn, nymphs will have grown into adults. This is one of the more important stages simply because reproduction can now occur. Females will find a host in order to feed. Males find a host and a suitable mate. The male, once a mate is found, will fertilize as many females as it possibly can before dying. The females will continue to feed until they are full and eventually drop off. Once she is ready to lay eggs in the spring, her body will burst and the eggs distribute along the forest floor as the cycle begins

Each year, about 30,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported to CDC by state health departments and the District of Columbia. Could you imagine what the number would be if everyone knew their symptoms and reported it? Lyme disease is preventable, but you have to take the steps to protect your pet and yourself. There are many ways to protect yourself against ticks such as using insect repellant, wearing long sleeves and pants, and wear light-colored clothing to be able to see a tick. More importantly, if you spot a tick latched onto you, immediately remove it tweezers grasping the tick closely by the skin, and pull it straight out. (https://lymediseaseassociation.org/about-lyme/pet-spot ) Frontline has a Seresto neckline that https://lymediseaseassociation.org/about-lyme/prevention

“The rodents spread the plague from China to Europe and it hit Britain in 1348.”(Bates, Claire) So if the world is so populated more people will be homeless, and the disease could spread easier wiping out millions. The black death was also spread by people getting bites from infected rats, the disease travels through the body into the lungs, and when the person coughs or sneezes, the disease is transmitted into the air and can infect people who breath in that same air. So if the world becomes too over populated and there aren’t enough houses people will be living on the streets where disease could spread easier and faster just like the black death. “Indirect contact infections spread when an infected person sneezes or coughs, sending infectious droplets into the air.”(DIRECT…) So if everyone if coughing and sneezing then anyone who breathes in that contaminated air could get the disease. “Last year, it called dengue the “most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne viral disease” in the world—faster than West Nile virus or malaria.”(The deadly…) If this disease was to break out when the world is overpopulated a disease could take out almost half the entire human race.There are hundreds of diseases that can be spread by animals, some examples are all types of Influenza, Bubonic Plague, zoonotic diseases, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and Polio. One disease is the Zika virus, it is spread by mosquito bites who bite women and when if the infected women gets pregnant the Zika virus transfers the virus to the child, once the child is born the child could be born with a fatal brain defect. When the world becomes more populated more people could get bit with more mosquitos and get the Zika virus and a whole new generation of kids could be born with a brain