Ticks don’t harm mice, study finds, meaning Lyme threat is not decreased

Commentary: The article that appeared in today’s Poughkeepsie Journal reported that ticks appear to have no negative impact on the health or life span of mice, underscoring the need to find other ways to control the animal population that spreads Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. Although the article reported that ticks are not born with Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent responsible for Lyme disease, and must pick up the disease from their hosts, that is not the case for another Lyme-like illness that is rapidly spreading across the United States: Relapsing fever, due to Borrelia miyamotoi. This is a new emerging borrelia species, and is the first borrelia species to be transmitted transovarially, meaning it can be passed on directly from the mother tick to the larvae, without requiring the tick feed on a blood meal from a host, such as a mouse. The researchers at the Cary Institute did not check the ticks for this borrelia species, but it has already been found in Dutchess County based on a study performed by Tokarz in 2009, and was recently discovered to have spread across the United States, as far west as San Francisco. We need to do more research into this new emerging borrelia species, as we do not have reliable blood tests to detect it, and it can cause a Lyme-like illness with or without EM rashes with associated inflammation in the heart and brain (myocarditis, meningoencephalitis), and can even lead to strokes, bleeding disorders, and fetal death with premature abortion. I discuss Borrelia miyamotoi and other tick-borne co-infections in my recently released book from St Martin’s press: “Why Can’t I Get Better? Solving the Mystery of Lyme and Chronic Disease”. The rising rate of co-infections such as B. miyamotoi, Babesiosis and the Powassan virus in Dutchess County is alarming. We should be examining the ticks now for this new emerging borrelia species as well as other tick-borne co-infections, and educate our health professionals on the protean manifestations of these illnesses, before more individuals have to suffer the disabling consequences of undiagnosed and untreated tick-borne illness.

Ticks don’t harm mice, study finds, meaning Lyme threat is not decreased, by John Ferro, Poughkeepsie Journal