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Lyme Disease: The Ecology of a Complex System


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The subject of this post is the title of a book written by Richard S. Ostfeld, Senior Scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystems Studies. The link I've posted below is an interview on a public radio station in the northeast, which was originally posted by someone else to Tick-L. It's about half an hour long, but well worth taking the time to listen.

 

Tick ecology

 

I became interested in this after I fenced off part of the property here (literally crawling with ticks) for my sheep. As the sheep browsed in the woods and cleared out the honeysuckle, poison ivy, etc., they also became infested with a lot of ticks. I'm sure there's little or no research on sheep as a reservoir for tick diseases, but assuming that they are more like the deer, then perhaps I am actually creating a situation in which fewer ticks in my immediate area are likely to harbor Lyme-disease bearing ticks.

 

Oh, and I will now view my marauding possums a bit differently too. It seems that possums are one of the few species that actually remove (and eat) ticks during the grooming process, thereby reducing the potential for disease transmission. One saving grace for possums!

 

J.

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