Archive for the ‘Ticks’ Category

62% Adult Taiga Ticks Found With Borrelia spp. in Finland

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32727555/

. 2020 Jul 29;13(1):384.

doi: 10.1186/s13071-020-04259-z.

Questing abundance of adult taiga ticks Ixodes persulcatus and their Borrelia prevalence at the north-western part of their distribution

Veli-Matti Pakanen 1 2, Jani J Sormunen 3, Ella Sippola 4, Donald Blomqvist 5, Eva R Kallio 6

Abstract

Background: Because ixodid ticks are vectors of zoonotic pathogens, including Borrelia, information of their abundance, seasonal variation in questing behaviour and pathogen prevalence is important for human health. As ticks are invading new areas northwards, information from these new areas are needed. Taiga tick (Ixodes persulcatus) populations have been recently found at Bothnian Bay, Finland. We assessed seasonal variation in questing abundance of ticks and their pathogen prevalence in coastal deciduous forests near the city of Oulu (latitudes 64-65°) in 2019.

Methods: We sampled ticks from May until September by cloth dragging 100 meters once a month at eight study sites. We calculated a density index (individuals/100 m2) to assess seasonal variation. Samples were screened for Borrelia burgdorferi (sensu lato) (including B. afzelii, B. garinii, B. burgdorferi (sensu stricto) and B. valaisana), Borrelia miyamotoi, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Rickettsia spp., Neoehrlichia mikurensis, Francisella tularensis and Bartonella spp., Babesia spp. and for the tick-borne encephalitis virus.

Results: All except one nymph were identified as I. persulcatus. The number of questing adults showed a strong peak in May (median: 6.5 adults/100 m2), which is among the highest values reported in northern Europe, and potentially indicates a large population size. After May, the number of questing adults declined steadily with few adults still sampled in August. Nymphs were present from May until September.

  • We found a striking prevalence of Borrelia spp. in adults (62%) and nymphs (40%)
  • B. garinii (51%) and B. afzelii (63%) being the most common species
  • 26% of infected adults were coinfected with at least two Borrelia genospecies, mainly B. garinii and B. afzelii, which are associated with different host species

Conclusions: The coastal forest environments at Bothnian Bay seem to provide favourable environments for I. persulcatus and the spread of Borrelia. High tick abundance, a low diversity of the host community and similar host use among larvae and nymphs likely explain the high Borrelia prevalence and coinfection rate. Research on the infestation of the hosts that quantifies the temporal dynamics of immature life stages would reveal important aspects of pathogen circulation in these tick populations.

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**Comment**

Yes, humans are hosts for Taiga ticks.

There is a misnomer in this article:  “As ticks are invading new areas northwards....”  This false narrative tries to make tick movement and disease proliferation a climate issue, when it’s not.

This makes it sound as if ticks are ONLY invading new areas to the North.  They are also invading new areas in the South (and everywhere else for that matter) and all of this despite the weather.  

For More:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/06/17/ontario-public-health-officials-called-out-on-shoddy-biased-research-utilizing-an-erroneous-climate-change-model-to-program-a-futuristic-tick-problem/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/07/ticks-on-the-move-due-to-migrating-birds-and-photoperiod-not-climate-change/

Category:

Lyme, research, Ticks

Where on Your Body Are You Most Likely to Find a Tick? Upstate Study Has the Answer

https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/08/what-part-of-your-body-is-a-tick-mostly-likely-to-bite-upstate-study-has-the-answer

Where on your body are you most likely to find a tick? Upstate study has the answer

Ticks collected in Central New York

Two black-legged ticks — an adult female, rear, and a nymph — crawl on a sheet of paper. They were collected by Upstate Medical University researchers at Green Lakes State Park as part of a research study to see what diseases ticks carry and what synergistic effects those diseases might produce in the bodies of animals, including humans, bitten by ticks.N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com

Syracuse, N.Y. – When you check your body for ticks after being outdoors, start with your thighs.

That’s the most likely spot to find ticks, according to a survey by Upstate Medical University’s tick-borne disease lab.

Of the 748 black-legged ticks sent over this spring and summer that had been attached to humans, nearly 16% of them were pulled off the thigh. Another 7% were pulled from the groin.

“Ticks like to go and feed on the human body in places where it’s moist and warm,” said Saravanan Thangamani, professor of microbiology and immunology at Upstate and director of the SUNY Center for Environmental Health and Medicine. “The tick has evolved to go into places where humans can’t check themselves very easily.”

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**Comment**

Important graph:

Where deer ticks attach on the body

While interesting, don’t take this as gospel.  You can and will find ticks anywhere and everywhere.  Also, they obtained their data from a self-reported questionnaire – meaning there very well may have been ticks they didn’t find.

For tick prevention:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/04/12/tick-prevention-2019/

Category:

Prevention, research, Ticks

With Health Departments Overwhelmed, Tick and Mosquito Surveillance is Scaled Back

https://www.wpr.org/health-departments-overwhelmed-tick-and-mosquito-surveillance-scaled-back

A woman examines a long piece of white canvas with strands at the end

Susan Paskewitz examines a canvas tick drag, a tool that’s used to capture ticks, on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. Angela Major/WPR

With Health Departments Overwhelmed, Tick And Mosquito Surveillance Is Scaled Back

Tracking Disease-Carrying Pests Is One Of Many Routine Duties Departments Have Had To Juggle In Midst Of Pandemic
By Shamane Mills
Published: Friday, August 21, 2020, 5:00am
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Excerpts from article:

In 2018, over 3,000 people in the state contracted Lyme disease from blacklegged ticks found on deer. Susan Paskewitz, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of entomology, said that number just represents known and suspected cases, and is only the tip of the iceberg.

But this summer, the attention of health departments across Wisconsin is focused squarely on the coronavirus pandemic — taking scarce public health dollars and time away from other, more routine health threats. That includes tick and mosquito surveillance.

“Folks are more hesitant potentially to go in and see their providers to get checked out if they have headaches or fever. Things like muscle, joint aches and fatigue. They may be more willing to dismiss those symptoms instead of going and getting checked out and get tested,” said Ryan Wozniak, who supervises vector-borne diseases within Bureau of Communicable Diseases at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Wisconsin continues to track how many people get sick from tick and mosquito infections. But if people ignore symptoms, reported cases could be lower than they actually are during a time more people are going outdoors in hopes of bolstering both mental and physical health. 

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**Comment**
This is a real problem.

Category:

Activism, mosquitoes, Ticks, Viruses

Outdoor Warning: Ticks, Lyme Disease and 3 Poisonous Plants Increasing in Alabama

https://www.wsfa.com/2020/08/07/outdoor-warning-ticks-lyme-disease-poisonous-plants-increasing-alabama/

Outdoor warning: ticks, Lyme disease and 3 poisonous plants increasing in Alabama

The hotter and increasingly humid springs and summers are supporting a changing ecosystem
Outdoor warning: ticks, Lyme disease and 3 poisonous plants increasing in Alabama
The life stages of a blacklegged tick. (Source: WSFA 12 News/CDC)
By Tyler Sebree | August 7, 2020 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – We all know it’s very warm to simply miserably hot and humid for what seems like at least 6 months a year here in Alabama. Unfortunately, that is the perfect recipe for ticks, tick-related illnesses and poisonous plant growth.

But the number of ticks and poisonous plants has and will likely continue to rise across the state as our seasons continue to get warmer and more humid. Not only that, but the danger factor associated with both ticks and poisonous plants is also rising. That is according to scientists at Climate Central, an independent organization of scientists and journalists researching and reporting on the changing climate and its impact on the public.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Important quote:  

Three of the most common tick-related diseases in Alabama are Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, ehrlichiosis and Lyme disease. According to data from UAB, total cases in Alabama for each of them have jumped rather significantly. For example, during that 8-year span Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever cases increased by a staggering 500%.

I’m glad this information is becoming available because those in the South have fought for decades to be recognized by doctors who diagnose people solely by looking at a map.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/05/31/no-lyme-in-the-south-guess-again/

Correction:  Ticks are impervious to the weather.

So whatever your beliefs about global warming are – ticks simply don’t care.  They will find leaf litter or snow to hide under and come out when they darn well want to.  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/11/07/ticks-on-the-move-due-to-migrating-birds-and-photoperiod-not-climate-change/

What is important about this line of inquiry is that similarly to a magician’s trick to distract you from looking at what they are doing, our ‘authorities’ are experts at distracting from the important issues surrounding Lyme/MSIDS.  One of the most foundational issues surrounding this plague is our own governments’ involvement in it:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/07/22/house-passes-chris-smith-measure-to-probe-if-government-turned-ticks-into-bioweapons/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/07/19/biological-warfare-experiment-on-american-citizens-results-in-spreading-pandemic/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/07/31/tick-expert-admits-to-working-on-ticks-dropping-them-out-of-airplanes/

Our ‘authorities’ are only too happy to get side-tracked with climate data rather than come clean on their involvement.  Dr. Fauci, the king on the NIAID throne since 1984 (interesting year, huh?), decides who gets government funding for research.  Through his position he can control the narrative and in the case of Lyme/MSIDS, he wants to continue to pigeon-hole it into an easily defined illness they can create lucrative tests, drugs, and vaccines for.  This is what they do.  They own medicine and science and are completely in bed with Big Pharma.  If you defy this accepted narrative, they will hunt you down and make your life miserable.  Many Lyme doctors have gone through this trial by fire.

Recently I posted an article about how the House just approved increased funding for Lyme:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/08/02/house-approves-increased-funding-for-lyme-im-not-impressed-please-contact-congressman-pallone/

This money, unless it is watch-dogged, will end up like all the money in the past: lining the pockets of The Cabal who have clear conflicts of interest and extreme bias against Lyme patients.

This was recently seen in the TBDWG quite recently:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/07/18/dr-walker-at-tbdwg-meeting-sick-patients-who-want-to-get-treated-believe-in-persistent-lyme-like-a-religion/

In essence, Walker like most on the group seriously think we believe we are ill, and if we would believe differently we would no longer be ill.

Please go into the link and contact Congressman Pallone and express that until a public hearing is held on the way Lyme has been handled (the gory back-story in full) we do not want another dime of tax-payer money going to HHS.  They need to know we are tired of their games getting us no where on our nickel.  They need to cease and desist until the truth is aired and doctors, researchers, and patients outside The Cabal are heard.  Also, contact your own representative and educate them on this so they are better equipped to make decisions.

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research, Ticks

When It Comes To Ticks, Lyme Disease Is Only The Beginning

https://www.menshealth.com/health/a33337469/tick-meat-allergy/?

When it Comes to Ticks, Lyme Disease is Only the Beginning

The critters could be responsible for a wide range of health problems—including sudden allergies to meat.
BY JACQUELINE DETWILER-GEORGE

tickred meat photo illustration
THE LITTLEST BOOM BOX

ONE NIGHT in the late 1990s, Greg Gilbert, Ph.D., discovered he was allergic to meat. A forest ecologist and professor at UC Santa Cruz, he was working with the indigenous Guna people on the Caribbean coast of Panama to diagnose a disease in coconuts. At dinner, his host served him a stew made out of peccary, a hairy relative of the pig. Gilbert got violently ill and assumed he’d eaten something that either was unsanitary or had gone bad. The next time he visited the Guna and ate pig’s-feet soup, it happened again. That’s when he realized he hadn’t had a one-off reaction. He suffered an allergic response every time he ate meat.  (See link for article)

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**Comment**

Overall, decent article.  Their focus was the alpha-gal meat allergy caused by tick bites, which doesn’t get a lot of air play and I appreciated the fact they point out that Lyme is only one of many diseases you can get from ticks.  And while this fact is true, our ‘authorities’ haven’t gotten the memo.  They continue to treat this complex illness as a singularly-caused issue with an extremely limited mono-therapy which has failed time and time again, yet they follow the dogma as if their lives depended upon it.

It’s quite telling that while media stories like this have been coming out for some time now, our ‘authorities’ are truly in the dark ages in responding to it with appropriate research.  There is very little research on the overall effect of having multiple infections simultaneously, yet this is often what happens in reality.

Again, the sexy, accepted research is done on the acute phase of the disease as well as “climate change”.  These topics will not help patients suffering with persisting symptoms one iota.  We need to insist upon good, unbiased studies on issues that will improve patient outcome.  We need accurate tests, appropriate treatments, the effects of being infected with multiple pathogens, and so much more.

More on Alpha-gal:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/08/17/alpha-gal-syndrome-how-to-diagnose-treat-and-prevent-the-tick-borne-red-meat-allergy/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/05/04/arkansas-woman-develops-deadly-meat-allergy-after-tick-bite/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/07/12/sudden-red-meat-allergy-made-eating-painful-for-mom-and-its-all-because-of-a-tick-bite/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/01/12/tick-related-red-meat-allergy-found-in-minnesota-wisconsin/  It’s in Wisconsin too.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/05/20/how-a-tick-bite-can-give-you-a-red-meat-allergy/

 

 

 

Category:

Alpha Gal Meat Allergy, Ticks