Lyme Disease Deer

There are various conflicting observations about the deer being the father and mother of the Lyme disease. But it is always good to look at both ends and determine if the deer is solemnly responsible for Lyme disease. Research on Lyme disease and the deer has basically brought on the table very debatable observations.

It has been observed that the leading causes of the Lyme diseases are mainly the small mammals like the mice which usually help in the first year of the two-year life cycle. But the adult tick is usually given blood meal and transportation by the deer. Studies have indicated that you can reduce the number of ticks dramatically if you reduce the number of deer per density to maybe 10 per square mile. This therefore also means that there will be a dramatic reduction of the Lyme disease. There are some studies which have gone further in demystifying this fact by essentially removing all deer in a selected area and the results were that the Lyme disease dropped almost to non-existent.

A fenced area that can bar deer from coming in can prove this observation. If you walk round inside the fence; you will find that you will not pick up ticks contrary to if you were to join the deer population outside the fence where you may find that you will pick up ticks. The unfortunate part of this observation is that nature has a part to play. In fact, it has a way of being complex than it is ever thought about. It is believe that the deer is the parent host of the black-legged tick. But when there is scarcity of deer, nature takes its course and the ticks feed on raccoons, skunks, opossums or even other medium sized mammals. These always provide alternative hosts to these ticks.

But then, a fact that is true is that ticks are very dangerous when infected and the deer does not play any role in infecting the ticks. It is the Lyme disease bacterium that infects ticks which feed on the small mammals such as the white footed mice, chipmunks and shrews, with mice playing an additional role of increasing the survival of the ticks. In essence, as much as the reduction of deer can reduce accidents and maybe increase forest regeneration, the best way is to increase forest patches that will necessitate the growth of natural predators such as the weasels, coyotes, foxes and owls which can do the job of feeding on these ticks.

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