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Researchers to probe whether Lyme disease will follow spread of ticks across U.S.
September 17, 2009EAST LANSING, Mich. - Potentially debilitating Lyme disease doesn't afflict people everywhere that the ticks harboring it are found. At least not yet. A five-university consortium led by a Michigan State University researcher wants to find out why.
"These ticks are on the move. As ticks expand into new areas, more people will likely become infected," said MSU fisheries and wildlife assistant professor Jean Tsao, who will lead the four-year, $2.5 million study.
"We have a really intriguing scientific puzzle to solve - many factors change as we move from north to south, and we need to be smart with our study design to unravel these," she said. "Our study also has practical goals - we aim to provide the health community and the public in the various states with some reassurance, or warning, about what their future will hold for spread of Lyme disease. Understanding the reasons why Lyme disease is such a problem in some areas will help us manage the disease better, and lower the risk to human health."
In 30 years, the tiny blacklegged tick has cut a huge swath through 10 northern states by carrying a bacterial infection now annually afflicting more than 20,000 North Americans. Curiously, the same parasite commonly known as the deer tick also is found in southern states, where Lyme disease is comparatively rare.
"Researchers do not know how climate, vertebrate biodiversity, tick genetics or other factors affect the maintenance of the pathogen and its relative abundance in an area," Tsao said. "So as the ticks spread, will tick populations in new areas be infected like northern populations or mainly clean of infection like southern populations?"
The disease has a range of symptoms including rash, fatigue, joint aches and shooting pain, and now is widespread in Minnesota and Wisconsin and along the northeastern seaboard. And although ticks also are found in the forests of the Upper Peninsula and eastern Lake Michigan shoreline, the disease has yet to make serious inroads in Michigan beyond Menominee County in the southwestern U.P.
That might not be the case for long, Tsao said, as infected ticks ride deer, mice, birds and other hosts into new areas. Her colleague Edward Walker's lab discovered recently established populations of Lyme disease ticks in southwestern Michigan in the early 2000s, she noted, and during the last six years MSU doctoral student Sarah Hamer has tracked the invasion up the shore of Lake Michigan.
Tsao and colleagues are looking into potential new explanations for the uneven incidence of Lyme disease. The researchers plan to study how various ecological factors affect the Lyme disease cycle by simultaneously applying standardized survey methods at 12 sites spanning Massachusetts to Georgia and Minnesota to Mississippi.
Participating with MSU in the National Science Foundation-funded study are researchers from the University of Montreal, the University of Rhode Island, Hofstra University, the University of Tennessee and Georgia Southern University.
Michigan State University
In 30 years, the tiny blacklegged tick has cut a huge swath through 10 northern states by carrying a bacterial infection now annually afflicting more than 20,000 North Americans. Curiously, the same parasite commonly known as the deer tick also is found in southern states, where Lyme disease is comparatively rare.
"Researchers do not know how climate, vertebrate biodiversity, tick genetics or other factors affect the maintenance of the pathogen and its relative abundance in an area," Tsao said. "So as the ticks spread, will tick populations in new areas be infected like northern populations or mainly clean of infection like southern populations?"
The disease has a range of symptoms including rash, fatigue, joint aches and shooting pain, and now is widespread in Minnesota and Wisconsin and along the northeastern seaboard. And although ticks also are found in the forests of the Upper Peninsula and eastern Lake Michigan shoreline, the disease has yet to make serious inroads in Michigan beyond Menominee County in the southwestern U.P.
That might not be the case for long, Tsao said, as infected ticks ride deer, mice, birds and other hosts into new areas. Her colleague Edward Walker's lab discovered recently established populations of Lyme disease ticks in southwestern Michigan in the early 2000s, she noted, and during the last six years MSU doctoral student Sarah Hamer has tracked the invasion up the shore of Lake Michigan.
Tsao and colleagues are looking into potential new explanations for the uneven incidence of Lyme disease. The researchers plan to study how various ecological factors affect the Lyme disease cycle by simultaneously applying standardized survey methods at 12 sites spanning Massachusetts to Georgia and Minnesota to Mississippi.
Participating with MSU in the National Science Foundation-funded study are researchers from the University of Montreal, the University of Rhode Island, Hofstra University, the University of Tennessee and Georgia Southern University.
Michigan State University
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Eugene-Springfield face Upper Willamette climate threats
Effects of climate change projected this century for Oregon's Upper Willamette River Basin, including Eugene-Springfield, will threaten water supplies, buildings, transportation systems, human health, forests, and fish and wildlife, according to a report produced by the University of Oregon's Climate Leadership Initiative and the National Center for Conservation Science & Policy.
A Natural, Alternative Insect Repellent to Deet
Isolongifolenone, a natural compound found in the Tauroniro tree (Humiria balsamifera) of South America, has been found to effectively deter biting of mosquitoes and to repel ticks, both of which are known spreaders of diseases such as malaria, West Nile virus, and Lyme disease.
Grazing animals help spread plant disease
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Researchers identify cell group key to Lyme disease arthritis
A research team led by the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology and Albany Medical College has illuminated the important role of natural killer (NK) T cells in Lyme disease, demonstrating that the once little understood white blood cells are central to clearing the bacterial infection and reducing the intensity and duration of arthritis associated with Lyme disease.
New CU-Boulder study shows diversity decreases chances of parasitic disease
A new University of Colorado at Boulder study showing that American toads who pal around with gray tree frogs reduce their chances of parasitic infections known to cause limb malformations has strong implications for the benefits of biodiversity on emerging wildlife diseases.
Study: Bird diversity lessens human exposure to West Nile Virus
A study by biologists at Washington University in St. Louis shows that the more diverse a bird population is in an area, the less chance humans have of exposure to West Nile Virus (WNV).
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