Deer Impacts Blog: 2012-06-24

Thursday, June 28, 2012

RESEARCH NEWS: Lone Star Tick Bites Linked to Meat Allergies

White-tailed deer are a major host for Lone Star Ticks. Connections between tick-borne diseases, ticks, and deer are complex and not always intuitive. That said, this is pretty strange:

University of Virginia researchers announced last week that they have found a connection between Lone Star Tick (Amblyoma americanum) bites and allergic reaction to meat. This new allergy to meat called Alpha-Gal presents itself 4-6 hours after consumption of beef, pork or lamb and symptoms can vary between hives to anaphylactic shock. So far, doctors have diagnosed over 1,500 people with Alpha-Gal as a result of Lone Star Tick bites.

Source: Houston Chronicle

Some of my deer-related research studies

Ripple, WJ, TP Rooney, and RL Beschta. 2010. Large predators, deer, and trophic cascades in boreal and temperate ecosystems. Pages 141-161 in J Terborgh and JA Estes, eds. Trophic Cascades: Predators, Prey, and the Changing Dynamics of Nature. Island Press, Washington DC.

Rooney, TP and DA Anderson. 2009. Are wolf-mediated trophic cascades boosting biodiversity in the Great Lakes Region? Pages 205-215 in AP Wydeven, TR Van Deelen, and E Heske, eds. Recovery of Gray Wolves in the Great Lakes Region of the United States: an Endangered Species Success Story. Springer, New York.

Rooney, TP 2009. High white-tailed deer densities benefit graminoids and contribute to biotic homogenization of forest ground-layer vegetation. Plant Ecology 202: 103-111.

Rooney, TP and KC Millam. 2006. Population demography and herbivory of Trillium grandiflorum: implications for Trillium conservation. Pages 591-595 in JT Columbus, EA Friar, JM Porter, LM Prince, and MG Simpson, eds. Monocots: Comparative biology and evolution (excluding Poales). Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont, CA.

Rooney, TP. 2006. Deer density reduction without a 12-gauge shotgun (Wisconsin). Ecological Restoration 24: 205-206.

Côté, SD, TP Rooney, JP Tremblay, C Dussault, and DM Waller. 2004. Ecological impacts of deer overabundance. Annual Review of Ecology Evolution and Systematics 35: 113-147.

Rooney, TP, SM Wiegmann, DA Rogers, and DM Waller. 2004. Biotic impoverishment and homogenization in unfragmented forest understory communities. Conservation Biology 18: 787-798.

Rooney, TP and DM Waller. 2003. Direct and indirect effects of deer in forest ecosystems. Forest Ecology and Management 181: 165-176.

Rooney, TP and K Gross. 2003. A demographic study of deer browsing impacts on Trillium grandiflorum. Plant Ecology 168: 267-277.

Rooney, TP, SL Solheim, and DM Waller. 2002. Factors influencing the regeneration of northern white cedar in lowland forests of the Upper Great Lakes region, USA. Forest Ecology and Management 163: 119-130.

Rooney, TP 2001. Impacts of white-tailed deer on forest ecosystems: a North American perspective. Forestry 74: 201-208.

Rooney, TP and DM Waller. 2001. How experimental defoliation and leaf height affect growth and reproduction in Trillium grandiflorum. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 128: 393-399.

Rooney, TP, RJ McCormick, SL Solheim and DM Waller. 2000. Regional variation in recruitment of hemlock seedlings and saplings in the upper Great Lakes, USA. Ecological Applications 10: 1119-1132.

Rooney, TP 1997. Escaping herbivory: refuge effects on the morphology and shoot demography of the clonal forest herb Maianthemum canadense. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 124: 280-285.

Rooney, TP and WJ Dress. 1997. Species loss over sixty-six years in the ground layer vegetation of Heart's Content, an old-growth forest in Pennsylvania USA. Natural Areas Journal 17: 297-305.