
Read: a
full report of the project. Tick Control
Device is Tested in USDA Project to Reduce Lyme DiseaseBy Linda McGraw May 7, 2001A patented device developed by
Agricultural Research Service scientists
in Kerrville, Texas, is the basis for a five-year study to control ticks on
white-tailed deer in the Northeast. Blacklegged ticks, Ixodes
scapularis, transmit the bacterial agent that causes human Lyme disease,
Borrelia burgdorferi. The device has a homey name--the four-poster. It
consists of a bin filled with whole-kernel corn. On the four corners of the bin
are paint rollers loaded with amitraz, an acaricide approved for livestock. As
a deer feeds on the corn in the center, the animal rubs its head and neck
against the amitraz-laden rollers. This invention offers a tick- control
alternative to spraying insecticides into the environment or to reducing deer
populations, according to ARS entomologist J. Mathews Pound in Kerrville. Lyme disease occurs mainly in suburban areas with an overabundance of deer.
Thats why the U.S. Department of
Agriculture implemented a 5-year project in the Northeast to reduce ticks
on deer. The test sites include residential areas where the incidence of Lyme
disease was among the highest in the country when the project started in 1997:
Old Lyme, Conn.; Bedford, N.Y.; Colts Neck, N.J.; and Narragansett, R.I. The
last test location is at ARS Henry
A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Maryland. In the Northeast, where blacklegged ticks have a two-year life cycle, the
researchers are targeting nymphs, the stage after larvae. In the second year,
nymphs turn into adults and the females begin seeking a host--white tailed
deer--that offers a large blood meal. Infected nymphs transmit the most cases
of Lyme disease. Each year, more than 10,000 human cases of Lyme disease are reported in the
United States, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Ga. USDA holds a patent on the four-poster device. ARS is the chief scientific
research agency in USDA. A full report of the project can be found in the May issue of Agricultural Research. Scientific contact: J. Mathews Pound, ARS
U.S. Livestock Insects
Research Laboratory, Kerrville, Texas, phone (830) 792-0342, fax (830)
792-0337, [email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture |