THURMONT, Md. – A Thurmont veterinarian is warning pet-owners of what to look for to make sure your four-legged friend doesn’t become a victim of harmful ticks.
Dr. Susan Keane at the Catoctin Veterinary Clinic says ticks that can spread Lyme disease are alive all year round, not just during the warmer months.
She says your dogs, and even cats can catch the harmful bug while playing in the backyard or through a walk in the woods.
Dr. Keane advises that regular checks through their fur, especially the legs, can help with prevention, but here are some other symptoms to look for.
“Joint pain, fever, lethargy, meaning they’re laying around, not eating, anorexia. Any dog going outside, even in a suburban yard there’s some risk of a field mouse dropping a tick or the white-tail deer that we have in Maryland,” Dr. Keane explained.
In the last 100 tests done in January at the clinic, Dr. Keane says, eight percent tested positive for Lyme disease.
Four doctors told Susan Mercurio she had MS. She had Lyme.
Kay Lyon’s daughter was prescribed powerful psychiatric drugs and sent to a locked ward. She had Lyme.
Peter Mehegan wades into the controversy that surrounds this fast growing illness. And he discovers why one Lyme disease researcher sees very bad news ahead for residents in the 128-495 corridor.
Many never get the “classic” Bull’s-eye rash. Depending on who’s counting, only 27-80% get it. An inconvenient truth is that only a quarter of the first ever patient sample had a rash:1976circularletterpdf
Dr. Steere states Lyme is over-diagnosed. I’ll bet having to eat those words has been bitter.
Winter thaws bring out the ticks. Take precautions when heading outdoors on warm winter days to avoid tick bites. Wearing light-colored clothing and tucking pantlegs into socks can help. Credit: Pavla Zakova | Dreamstime.com
We asked disease ecologist Rick Ostfeld if we need to worry about ticks during the winter. His response is below. (TL; DR = yes)
Blacklegged ticks, which transmit the agents of Lyme disease, babesiosis, and anaplasmosis, disappear in winter, right? Well, not entirely. Although human encounters with these ticks are less likely in winter, there are plenty of ticks out in the environment lurking in a state of (almost) suspended animation.
Larval ticks that hatched the prior summer but failed to find an animal host can become dormant and remain on the forest floor in a quiescent state. The same is true of nymphal ticks, which are normally most active in spring and early summer. These two stages are unlikely to activate until day-length and temperature both increase dramatically. Adult stage ticks, in contrast, most actively seek hosts in the late fall.
The females that were able to engorge on host blood last fall are overwintering in soil pores or under leaf litter, while slowly converting host blood into eggs that they will lay next spring or summer. Some of the adults that did not find a host have died of starvation or other causes, but the unfed survivors will activate any winter or spring day with above-freezing temperatures. In the southern United States, these ticks can be active all year, but even in the northeastern and upper Midwestern regions, ticks can bite during any warmish spell in January, February, and beyond.
As part of The Tick Project, we invite participating households to mail us ticks found embedded in or crawling on people or pets, and we typically receive quite a few even in the coldest months. The riskiest seasons for diseases transmitted by blacklegged ticks are spring and summer, but risk never goes away entirely. And, our 25-years of data from Dutchess County, NY show that, as the climate warms, the ticks come out earlier in the year, advancing the dates of greatest risk.
Alumnus works to protect people from West Nile Virus, Lyme disease
APRILLE MOHNFEBRUARY 23, 2019
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
Feb. 18, Elizabethtown College alumnus Jon Bachman, ‘17, returned to Elizabethtown College to speak to current students about his career as an aquatic biologist with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP).
Bachman is part of a team researching and working to increase awareness of arboviruses. Arboviruses are viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes, ticks or other arthropods. Bachman and his colleagues work to protect people from tick and mosquito-borne pathogens, most prominently West Nile Virus (WNV), and more recently, Lyme disease.
The DEP is studying WNV and the mosquitoes that carry it, which according to Vector Disease Control International, are primarily Culex pipiens, Culex tarsalis, and Culex quinquefasciatus.
Bachman and his team look at mosquito habitat so larvae can be suppressed and killed. They also set traps so when a female mosquito lays eggs in their trap they are able to collect the samples. They then smash the eggs and conduct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on the DNA in them. PCR is a process that can make many copies of specific DNA strands. By replicating the DNA they are able to see if the virus is carried by the eggs they collected.
Based on where large traces of the West Nile Virus is found the team determines where they’re going to spray for adult mosquitoes in order to prevent the spread of the virus.
This past year has had the most WNV positive mosquitoes. There were 7,500 positive samples, which was much higher than previous years. The second highest positives found in a year was in 2012 when around 6,000 positive samples were found.
Some important information about the disease Bachman shared was that WNV is not spread between people—birds are the reservoir species for the virus, meaning that the mosquitoes must first get it from birds before they can transmit it to any humans.
Another distinction is that the mosquitoes which often carry West Nile Virus are not the large groups of mosquitoes people encounter. Those are typically the inland floodwater species of mosquito, or Aedes vexans.
Floodwater mosquito eggs often hatch all at once because the adult female mosquito lays eggs that dry out and don’t hatch until they get wet. On years with large amounts of flooding, such as this year, all the eggs get wet and all hatch at same time.
There are 62 species of Mosquitoes in Pennsylvania, but the vast majority do not carry West Nile Virus.
“If you’re being swarmed with mosquitoes they are not the ones carrying the disease,” Bachman said. “If you’re getting swarmed you don’t have to worry about getting the virus. It’s the one mosquito you don’t feel—that’s how you get the virus.”
This year, Bachman’s team has begun to do research on Ixodes scapularis, more commonly known as the deer tick, because of the Lyme disease they carry. Pennsylvania is the worst state for Lyme disease almost, if not every, year. For this reason, the DEP’s research is being funded by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) through the Department of Health.
Bachman’s team is trying to find 50 adult deer ticks in each county in Pennsylvania to determine the rate of Lyme disease for each region of the state.
According to Bachman, it takes a lot of work to catch 50 ticks.They have to look at three different sites and so they try to pick sites they know people will be at.
Bachman said he has the most luck along the edges of soccer fields with woodlines.
Each search is different, as well. Bachman spent six days in Fulton County, PA and was unable to catch a single tick, and yet in the next county over, Bedford County, he was able to catch over 100 ticks in half an hour.
Bachman said he has a “very, very unique job. It’s more of a public health job.”
To determine the best ways to control West Nile Virus and Lyme disease, he and his peers need to understand the habitats and life cycles of the organisms that spread the illnesses.
Bachman was an environmental science major with a minor in political science. While his career is much more focussed on ideas from environmental science Bachman found his minor helpful to learn and understand environmental law and regulations.
Moreover, his political science minor taught Bachman more about public speaking, which is important as part of his career is to work with representatives of different countries who come to him for advice regarding mosquitoes and ticks.
While at Etown, Bachman was involved with the SEEDS Ecology Club. He was the club’s treasurer his senior year, which was the first year that the College had a chapter of the nationwide program.
Bachman also has a U.S. Army background as he was a member of the Army from 2005 to 2012. He first worked as an Infantry man and later he worked with hazardous materials, or hazmat.
This work in the Army with hazmat led Bachman to the job he held prior to his position with the DEP, which was a job as the hazmat supervisor at a Harley Davidson in York, PA.
One piece of advice Bachman had for students in regards to finding jobs after college is to study the jobs they are applying for closely. “Look into every detail of a job before you go to an interview,” Bachman said.
Bachman recommends students learn about as many fields as they can, and make themselves well rounded in preparation for finding a career.
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**Comment**
Please notice the alarming statement of where Bachman finds the most ticks:
Bachman said he has the most luck along the edges of soccer fields with woodlines.
Wisconsin has cases of West Nile, La Crosse Virus, & Jamestown Canyon Virus.
Wisconsin is 4th in the nation for Lyme disease.
The CDC says the cases are hugely underestimated – more like 30,000 cases per year in WI. WI is a hotspot for newly emerging TBI – Anaplasma, Ehrlichia muris, borrelia miyamotoi (relapsing fever), Babesia divergens(in Michigan but Dr. Paskowitz feels it’s probably here too). Anaplasma seeing 400-600 cases a year in WI. Again, much underreporting.
Top 7 Overlooked Factors For Treating Lyme Disease
After two decades of published research and investigating numerous clinical cases on Lyme disease, Envita Medical Center brings powerful perspective. These seven commonly overlooked factors for treating Lyme disease may be the key to stopping unneeded suffering for Lyme disease patients and lead to restored heath for patients dealing with this painful and confusing affliction. Lyme disease is one of the most complex and advanced bacterial infections in the world.Borrelia burgdorferi, the scientific name for Lyme, is not only resistant to most antibiotics, traditional treatment, and often natural treatment, it also evades detection from the body’s immune system making it very difficult to treat clinically and even diagnose.
However, as difficult as it is to treating Lyme disease a whole new set of issues arise when this disease becomes “chronic” and develops into Chronic Lyme disease. The Borrelia infection releases endotoxins and neurotoxins into the body which destroy muscle and nerve fibers which cause painful inflammation and chronic pain. The toxins given off by the Borrelia also damage the neurological and endocrine systems resulting in a multitude psychiatric imbalances and mood changes. Most patients fail treatment because one or more key factors are not being addressed and will often lead to relapse after seeing short-term symptom reduction.
Listed below are the top seven critical yet often overlooked factors that need to be addressed to properly treat Lyme disease and help patients finally reach optimal health.
Getting a Complete and Accurate Diagnosis
Multi-Drug Resistance
Crossing the Blood-Brain Barrier with Treatment
Stripping Biofilm
Flushing Endotoxins and Biotoxins from the body
Pain Medication Complications
Reestablishing the Immune System
These 7 essentials are designed to point out some of the flaws of treatment and diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease but do not represent a comprehensive treatment plan. Much more goes into putting together a targeted and personalized treatment plan for patients than s mentioned here. Chronic Lyme disease is a complicated and resilient infection that requires highly skilled and experienced clinicians with a personalized approach specific to the patient.
Many Lyme disease treatments fail because numerous factors are overlooked, misdiagnosed, under-considered, or mistreated. Over a decade of working in this field, Envita Medical Clinic has discovered these seven critical treatment factors and many more that have saved and improved the lives of our patients.
