Tick Expert Admits to ‘Working on Ticks’ & Dropping Them Out of Airplanes
The following full-length interview with James H. Oliver, Jr. is an eye opener on the type of work that’s been done on ticks and mosquitoes.
He’s described by Pamela Weintraub in the book, Cure Unknown, as a “world-class entomologist” for figuring out that the southern U.S. had Lyme Disease by finding 300 southern genetic strains of Borrelia, 57 of which are nearly identical to the northern pathogen and are classified as Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto. He also discovered two new species, Borrelia americana and Borrelia carolinensis that could potentially help explain why many in the South suffer with Lyme yet are not testing positive on current tests.
Oliver was responsible for producing ticks and mosquitos, running distribution tests, and determining factors that would cause migration for the Army.
Oliver also worked in Australia where he found ticks on snakes there.
The Navy used Oliver in Uganda, where he stayed at the Rockefeller Institute, as their acarologist where he collected ticks.
For full interview: https://academic.oup.com/ae/article/62/4/206/2712469
