RESEARCH NEWS: Another Recent Study Questions Deer-Lyme Link

A recent study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, questioning the link between deer and Lyme disease. It is not the first study to do so, and in fact my view on the connections between deer and Lyme (such as they are) are a minority viewpoint within the field. Moreover, I do not conduct disease research, so my opinion should not be regarded as "expert opinion" on the topic.

Deer, predators, and the emergence of Lyme disease

Lyme disease is the most prevalent vector-borne disease in North America, and both the annual incidence and geographic range are increasing. The emergence of Lyme disease has been attributed to a century-long recovery of deer, an important reproductive host for adult ticks. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that Lyme disease risk may now be more dynamically linked to fluctuations in the abundance of small-mammal hosts that are thought to infect the majority of ticks. The continuing and rapid increase in Lyme disease over the past two decades, long after the recolonization of deer, suggests that other factors, including changes in the ecology of small-mammal hosts may be responsible for the continuing emergence of Lyme disease. We present a theoretical model that illustrates how reductions in small-mammal predators can sharply increase Lyme disease risk. We then show that increases in Lyme disease in the northeastern and midwestern United States over the past three decades are frequently uncorrelated with deer abundance and instead coincide with a range-wide decline of a key small-mammal predator, the red fox, likely due to expansion of coyote populations. Further, across four states we find poor spatial correlation between deer abundance and Lyme disease incidence, but coyote abundance and fox rarity effectively predict the spatial distribution of Lyme disease in New York. These results suggest that changes in predator communities may have cascading impacts that facilitate the emergence of zoonotic diseases, the vast majority of which rely on hosts that occupy low trophic levels.

Link to study here

INDIANA NEWS: Deer Cull, Opposition at Ogden Dunes

There are 55 deer in the one square mile town of Ogden Dunes.

The Town Council has voted 4-1 to seek a deer cull permit after the state Department of Natural Resources rejected steps such as trapping and moving deer and using insecticides to kill ticks on the deer.

Not all residents are on board.

Bernadette Slawinski, a 35-year resident and member of the task force, said she spent hours researching alternative methods of controlling both the deer and tick populations and gave her findings to the Town Council.

"I'm not sure they even read the report," Slawinski said.

She said there are simpler things residents can do, such as planting deer-tolerant plants and controlling the mice population, but officials and residents don't seem interested.

While Lyme is the main issue, traffic safety is a close second.

Source: Chicago Tribune

MAINE NEWS: Island Community Considers Deer Hunt

Voters on Islesboro are voting on whether to allow hunting on the island, mainly out of concern over Lyme disease.

Health care providers at the island's health center say that over the last eight years the island, which has a year-round population of about 600, has seen 69 cases of Lyme disease — enough to quality the outbreak as an epidemic.

There are an estimated 500 deer occupying the terrestrial 14.3 square miles of the island (35 deer per square mile).

Source: Bangor Daily News

UPDATE 26 August 2011: Last Wednesday, voters approved a measure to kill about 400 of the about 500 deer on the island.

Source: Bangor Daily News

NEW BRUNSWICK NEWS: Deer Feeding Bans Might Not Aid In Lyme Fight

Municipal bylaws banning people from feeding deer may not help prevent the spread of Lyme disease, according to a public health official.

Saint John council voted on Tuesday to refer the idea of a bylaw banning people from feeding deer to the city's legal department for advice.

Coun. Bill Farren said the deer cause a wide range of problems, such as carrying ticks infected with Lyme disease. But the proposal to ban the public from feeding deer is receiving mixed reviews.

Dr. Scott Giffin, a provincial medical officer of health in Saint John, said he isn't convinced the proposed bylaw would help prevent the spread of Lyme disease.

"I think the evidence for culling deer herds as a way to control ticks is weak at best and there may be many other reasons for culling deer herds that fall ahead of Lyme disease, that's for sure," he said.

The relationship between deer densities and Lyme is not simple, in part because so many other animals also serve as both hosts for deer ticks and reservoirs of Lyme Disease.

The full story is here: CBC

OHIO NEWS: Deer Tick Populations Expand, Hunters and Hikers At-Risk

Hunters and hikers should be wary of a potentially disease-carrying parasite that has established a foothold in Ohio, the state Department of Natural Resources warns.

A reproducing population of black-legged ticks, or deer ticks, has been found in Coshocton County, said Glen Needham, an entomologist with Ohio State University.

The tick, which can carry Lyme disease, is fairly common in surrounding states, and hikers have come across single ticks in Ohio for years. But scientists didn't discover a population large enough to reproduce and sustain itself until this past spring, he said.

Some deer ticks carry Lyme Disease, the most common arthropod-transmitted disease in the U.S. Last year, there were 30,000 cases of Lyme confirmed by the CDC. It is an emerging disease, one that most Ohio residents have little or no experience with. Deer play an important role in moving ticks long distances.

Source: Columbus Dispatch

MASSACHUSETTS NEWS: Lyme Disease Cases Tick Upwards

Lyme disease, the tick-borne ailment once primarily a scourge of the Cape and Islands, is now rampant in swaths of Massachusetts where locally acquired cases were rare a decade ago.

In Middlesex, Norfolk, and Worcester counties, the number of patients diagnosed with the bacterial disease surged more than fourfold between 2000 and 2009, according to figures the state Department of Public Health provided to the Globe.

The increase, which is fueling a statewide increase in reports of symptoms, is evident in the offices of infectious disease specialists and primary care doctors in places like Framingham and Natick, where Lyme disease diagnoses 10 or 15 years ago were largely restricted to people who had visited Cape Cod.

“Now,’’ said Dr. Richard Ellison, hospital epidemiologist at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, “they’re living in Charlton, they’re living in Northborough, they’re living in Westborough. And they’re not traveling to the Cape.’’

The disease is on the move, special ists said, because the deer population is expanding and human developments are encroaching on natural habitats. Hundreds of ticks can hitch a ride on a single deer. And a lone female tick can lay 2,000 — or more — eggs.

The result: Human and tick have increasing opportunity to come into contact, spreading an illness that often manifests with flulike symptoms but in some cases causes serious cardiac and neurologic complications.

It is an illustration, too, of the difficulty containing infectious diseases, especially those carried by tiny insects. The young ticks that tend to attach themselves to humans are roughly the size of a poppy seed and hard to detect. Their favorite hiding spots are behind knees, in armpits, and in the groin area.

“This has been an accident waiting to happen,’’ said Dr. Thomas Treadwell, director of the infectious disease clinic at MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham. “If you don’t have the deer, you don’t have the tick. And if you don’t have the tick, you don’t have the disease. But we now have the perfect habitat here.’’

Doctors who treat patients and specialists who track ticks said they’re convinced the rise in cases — last year, there were 4,042 statewide, compared with 1,194 in 2000 — reflects a genuine increase in illness and not simply better diagnosis or recordkeeping. The increase is too large to be explained by better surveillance, specialists said: In Middlesex County, for example, there were 136 cases in 2000, and by 2008, diagnoses had soared to 767.

Source: Boston Globe

VIRGINIA NEWS: County Looks to Deploy 4-Posters to Fight Lyme

In an effort to slow the spread of Lyme disease, Loudoun County, which has the highest concentration of the disease in Virginia, may seek state permission to install devices that kill the bugs that spread the disease: ticks.

Called the 4-Poster Deer Treatment Bait Station because it resembles a four-poster bed, the device was created by researchers with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the mid-1990s as a means of applying a tick-killing pesticide on the heads and necks of deer.

At a cost of about $425, the simple contraption is composed of a bin that holds corn kernels. When a deer sticks its head in the bin to feed, it rubs against two paintbrushes coated with a permethrin-based tickicide.

“It has proven to be effective,” said Loudoun Supervisor Jim Burton (I-Blue Ridge), who is working on a proposal to bring the stations to Loudoun.

In the late 1990s, researchers from Fordham University studied two towns in Upstate New York that were hotbeds for Lyme disease. Of the two, one had 24 of the devices installed, while they other had none. Results showed that after three years, deer in the community without the devices had seven times more ticks on them than deer known to have used the stations in the other community.

On its website, the American Lyme Disease Foundation cites two other studies in Texas and Maryland that showed the stations killed off more than 90 percent of the local tick populations.

Still, what remains unclear, according to Loudoun County Health Department Director Dr. David Goodfriend, is whether the devices help ward off human infections.

“I have not seen a study yet that shows how this reduces Lyme disease,” he said.

Goodfriend said the tried and true methods of avoiding the disease still remain keeping your property maintained and inspecting yourself regularly for ticks. “Controlling your personal environment,” he said, is key to avoiding being infected.

While how effective the stations are in thwarting the disease is still unknown, officials in Fairfax County have already begun the process to acquire one of the devices, which would make it the first jurisdiction in Virginia to employ one, according to Fairfax County Wildlife Biologist Victoria Monroe.

Currently, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries does not permit the stations in Virginia over concerns about their use during hunting season and whether they would attract deer with chronic wasting disease into the Commonwealth.

Monroe said Fairfax is working with the department to create a permitting system that she hopes jurisdictions and homeowners associations alike could use to acquire the stations. She’s hoping Fairfax will gain permission by the end of summer to deploy its station. If so, she said it would likely be installed next February as part of a pilot program on one of two parks being considered. She said one station can maintain the tick population in an area covering at least 50 acres.

Like Goodfriend, she said she knew of no studies that measured the effective of the stations on combating the spread of Lyme disease, but said researchers at Cornell University are currently conducting a study.

Positive results or not, she said they do have their limitations since they only kill ticks found on deer. (Ticks acquire the bacteria that causes Lyme disease from white-footed mice while deer move ticks from place to place.)

If and when permitted in Virginia, she said the stations would likely be deployed as a complement to other disease-prevention techniques, like checking for ticks after being outside.

“By itself," Monroe said, “I don’t think it would work.”

Source: Loudoun Independent

RESEARCH NEWS: Four-Posters Reduce Numbers of Lyme-Carrying Ticks 71%

A device called the "4-poster" Deer Treatment Bait Station, developed and patented by scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), was highly effective at reducing the number of ticks infected with the Lyme disease bacterium in a six-year U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) study in five Northeastern states—Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island—where the disease is endemic.

In the $2.1 million USDA Northeast Areawide Tick Control Project, investigators noted a 71 percent overall reduction in the number of ticks infected with the Lyme disease bacterium during summer months when most people get the disease. If the 4-poster is used in areas where the disease is endemic, this should translate to a corresponding 71 percent decrease in Lyme disease cases, according to Durland Fish, a professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health and principal investigator for the project. The effectiveness of the 4-poster ranged from 60 to 82 percent among the seven individual 2-square-mile study sites.

The device is a bin that contains corn, with insecticide-laden paint rollers mounted at the bin's corners. When a deer-the primary carrier of the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, which carries the Lyme disease bacterium—inserts its muzzle into the bin to feed, it must rub its head, neck and ears against the insecticide-treated rollers. When the deer subsequently grooms itself, the insecticide is spread enough to protect the animal's entire body.

Developed by ARS scientists at the agency's Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory in Kerrville, Texas, the 4-poster's efficacy could be boosted to more than 90 percent by using newer, more effective insecticides that were not available at the start of the USDA study, according to J. Mathews Pound, an entomologist at the Kerrville laboratory and a co-investigator on the study.

The results of the study have been published in a series of 11 papers in the August 2009 issue of the medical journal Vector-borne and Zoonotic Diseases. The articles are available free online.

Source: USDA-ARS

MARYLAND NEWS: Community Fights Lyme with Four-Posters

'Faced with the highest number of reported Lyme disease cases in the state, Howard County officials have expanded a program to combat the disease.

The county has installed four new "Four-Poster" devices, which coat deer with pesticide that kills the ticks that cause Lyme disease, in Schooley Mill Park in Highland, said Philip Norman, deer project manager for the county Department of Recreation and Parks.

"That area of the county had an extremely high incidence of Lyme disease," Norman said. "The primary concern we have here is Lyme disease carried by the black-legged tick, also called the deer tick."

The devices, installed at the beginning of July, joined six others in Blandair Park, in Columbia, which were installed in 2005, Norman said. They consist of a dish of corn surrounded by four rollers, which roll pesticide onto the deer's head and ears as it noses toward the food.

Norman noted that ticks tend to concentrate around the head and ears, plus the deer then uses its head to groom the rest of its body, spreading the pesticide.

The United States Department of Agriculture developed the device in the 1990s and they are manufactured in Ellicott City, Norman said. "It's amazing in its simplicity," he said.

Howard County had the highest number of reported cases of Lyme disease in the state in 2008, according the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

There were 369 confirmed and probable cases reported in the county in 2008, the department reported last month, up from 358 in 2007. Statewide, the total decreased from 2,576 cases in 2007 to 2,216 in 2008.

Officials have attributed the increase here to increased development.

Lyme disease is caused by a bacteria transmitted by an infected tick. If not detected and treated, it may cause chronic symptoms that can include joint pain, heart palpitations and neurological problems, according to Howard County health officials.

Norman said treating the deer is key to combating the disease. "After several years of treatment in any given area you can greatly reduce the prevalence," Norman said. The white-tailed deer is the primary host of the adult tick in the county, Norman said.


The Four-Poster devices are manufactured by C.R. Daniels Co., an Ellicott City-based firm.

Andy Szulinski, a vice president at C.R. Daniels, said the company manufactures about 400 Four-Posters a year, serving 20 states, Canada and Scotland. Each unit sells for about $800 and services between 50 and 100 acres, he said.

Szulinski said the company collaborated with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on designing the devices and is the only company in the country that sells them.

Deer host more ticks than any other animal, Szulinski said, making the device the most effective way of combating Lyme disease.

"You're going after the source of the adult ticks," he said.

All of the Four-Posters are made in the company's Ellicott City manufacturing plant, he added.

C.R. Daniels was established in 1918 and makes a variety of products, from carts used by the U.S. Postal Service to lawn and garden equipment, he said. The company has a 180,000-square foot plant in Ellicott City and a 100,000-square foot plant in Tennessee, he said.

Source: ExploreHoward.com

MIDWESTERN US NEWS: Lyme Disease on the Rise

MINNEAPOLIS - Deer ticks are expanding their range in the Upper Midwest, increasing the threat of disease to hikers and others tramping through the region's woods.

Public health officials say it's happening in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and southern Canada. The number of Lyme disease cases has been growing with the expansion.

No one is sure why the range is growing, but there's growing suspicion that subtle changes in the climate are tipping the ticks' complicated ecosystems toward expansion.

Health officials in Minnesota and Wisconsin are trying to get funding to test that theory.

Officials agree that it's not enough to keep people out of the woods, but they say outdoors enthusiasts should be smart and take precautions against tick bites.

Source: Chi Tribune

CONNECTICUT NEWS: FoA Protests Town Decision to Hunt Deer

No news on whether Friends of Spirochetes was also involved in organizing the protest.

Protesters lined the Post Road at Sherman Green Wednesday afternoon, demonstrating against a town committee's consideration of allowing hunting on public property to control the local deer population.

"The goal is to enlighten Fairfield residents to what's going on, where it's at and encourage people to start making phone calls and writing letters and let the commission know that we're not going to stand for this," said Nancy Rice, a Friends of
Animals employee who organized the rally.

The group held aloft signs that read: "Stop the War on Wildlife," "Ignoring Facts for the Thrill of the Kill," and "Conservation Commission: Do Not Change Regulations to Allow Killing." The protest didn't go off exactly as planned. One dramatic sign -- a photo of a deer with an arrow through its head -- was kept under wraps because a children's concert was under way on the green.

A hunter can now take down a deer on private property with a bow or a gun, depending on the property's size and how close neighboring homes are.

Conservation Commission member Chester Burley told the Fairfield Citizen last week that if hunting deer on public property is allowed in Fairfield, it would be very controlled and probably wouldn't be allowed more than three times per year.

However, Redding resident Lynn Gorfinkle, who has attended meetings of Fairfield's Deer Management Subcommittee and is a longtime opponent of hunting, said Wednesday that no hunting on public space, no matter how controlled, can be entirely safe.

"It will not work," she said, suggesting that large public lands won't be roped off and many people may miss signs that will posted about the controlled hunts, especially children.

In addition, Gorfinkle said hunters wound or kill 1,000 people in the United States each year.

The Conservation Commission's Deer Management Committee has considered various options to control deer overpopulation, and also has heard suggestions by the public. In addition to hunting, the options include trapping and relocating deer, administering birth control, using repellents and fencing off properties.

Gorfinkle said, "The right way to handle the deer population is to handle the perceived problem that some few individuals claim to have."

For example, deer often get blamed for the spread of Lyme disease, but Gofinkle said a deer is only one of the hosts for the ticks that spread the illness.

"Killing deer will not eliminate Lyme disease," Gorfinkle added.

If people have a problem with deer eating their gardens, Gorfinkle said they should erect a wire fence around their plants and flowers, use repellent sprays or plant things they know the deer won't eat.

Fairfield resident Debbie Lake said she has not seen enough deer to back up the Conservation Commission finding that there are 75 deer per square mile in town, even when she's in the Lake Hills area, where her mother lives.

Hunters looking for deer "are going to wind up killing dogs or kids, or anything," Lake said.

Gorfinkle said she suspects that "this effort on the part of the deer committee was choreographed through their contact with the FCMDMA [Fairfield County Municipal Deer Management Alliance] via Milan Bull," a hunter who serves on the Conservation Commission.

A few weeks ago, Rice filed a complaint against the Conservation Commission, claiming that members Bull and Burley violated the town's code of standards and conduct as members of the Deer Management Committee. Rice felt the two members are biased in favor of hunting, as one is a hunter and the other a gardener. The claim was dismissed last week.

In an interview last week, Burley said, "The fact that I'm a gardener and that influences or makes me biased beyond the point of being rational and impartial is as ludicrous an accusation as it is to tell a vegetarian not to shop at Stop & Shop because they sell meat there."

Calls to Bull were not returned.

Gorfinkle, who was born in Fairfield, said past history in various communities and states shows that killing deer increases, rather than decreases, the overall the deer population.

"There's more habitat for the remaining deer," she said. "Their health is amplified.

Their reproductive ability is amplified and instead of maybe having one fawn, a mother will have two or fawns. Hunting spurs the rate of reproduction."

Although the Conservation Commission has been accused of being pro-hunting, it is not following the opinion of the first selectman. Rice said she received a letter from First Selectman Kenneth Flatto stating he opposes the killing of any animals in Fairfield.

"It's good to know he's on our side," Rice said. "I don't know if it will help but it's good to know he's on our side."

Source: Connecticut Post

CONNECTICUT NEWS: Deer Kill Up, Deer Collisions Down

Road kills of deer in town have declined dramatically over the last decade, as the number of deer taken by hunters has risen.

“If you kill deer by hunting them, you get fewer car accidents,” Conservation Commission Chairman Ben Oko said. “That seems very clear.”

But a vast lowering of deer numbers — the culling of five out of every six deer now roaming Ridgefield’s forests — would be needed to bring the population down to levels that research has found can make a difference in keeping down ticks and Lyme disease.

The state counted 122 deer road kills in 1998, and just 35 in 2008. Deer taken by archery hunting rose from 55 in 1998 to 222 in 2008.

The pattern holds — with some ups and downs — across the 12 years from 1996 to 2008, according to statistics assembled by Howard Kilpatrick, a wildlife biologist with the state environmental department.

And Ridgefield no longer leads the state in the number of deer killed on its roads.

“Ridgefield was consistently ranked number one for many years — it was for three, four, five years anyway,” Mr. Kilpatrick said. “In 2007, they were ranked number seven.”

Ridgefield Police count more road deaths of deer than does the state, but the trend is similar. Road kills fell from 205 seven years ago to 90 last year, according to Police Chief John Roche.

Annual road-kill totals from 2001 to 2008 were: 205, 129, 172, 198, 146, 115, 127, 90.

No method of counting deer — hunted, killed on the roads, or running in the woods — can be taken as 100% accurate, Mr. Kilpatrick said. His numbers are based on Deer Kill Incident Report forms that police all across the state fill out when they go to the scene of an accident.

The higher numbers from the Ridgefield Police include those incidents, but also count carcasses found along roads when no accident is reported.

Mr. Kilpatrick’s numbers on deer harvested are based on tags turned in by hunters, and are likely low since not all hunters turn them in. Still, he said his numbers were meaningful because the methodology was consistent over the 12 years.

“We know the reported harvest is low. We know the reported deer road kills are low,” he said. “But our method for collecting that data is the same, so any trends should reflect what’s really happening out there.”

“What Howard is saying is that there is still a correlation, whether it’s reported as what he had, or what we had,” Chief Roche said. “There is still a drop in the number of deer found dead on the side of the road.”

Full story at: Acorn Online

CONFENCE SUMMARY - Suburban Deer Hunts Most Effective Management Tool

When it comes to controlling the damage caused by deer in suburban areas, controlled hunts have proven to be one of the most effective ways of restoring the ecological balance to the region's forests, according to wildlife officials.

Last week, federal, state and county officials, along with a host of university researchers, gathered for the annual Northeast Fish & Wildlife Conference in Lancaster, Pa.

While the two-day conference dealt with a multitude of problems , from the mystery fungus killing bats throughout the northeast to grassland restoration to aid the Regal Fritillary butterfly, there were several presentations dealing with the region's deer problems.

It was 15 years ago that Union County became the first county in the state to apply for a special permit to allow for the culling of the deer herd in the Watchung Reservation. With no natural predators, the growing number of deer were devouring the understory, the smaller shrubs and plants that provide shelter and food for smaller species.

Since that first Watchung hunt, similar approaches have been adopted by communities and counties across the state, with the South Mountain Reservation in neighboring Essex County one of the latest to bring in marksmen to reduce the deer herd. In recent years, Summit and Scotch Plains have also had cullings.

In 1994, the first year of the hunt in the Watchung Reservation, counts indicated a population of at least 96 deer per square mile, more than triple the amount the 2,065-acre preserve could sustain, said Daniel Bernier, who heads the county's Division of Park Planning and Environmental Services. Bernier, together with Susan Predl, a biologist with the N.J. Bureau of Wildlife Management, outlined the progress of the hunt at the Lancaster conference.

Bernier said that by the 1980s, it was clear that the growing deer herd was taking its toll on the reservation. Residents from the five communities surrounding the reservation were becoming increasingly frustrated by the mounting destruction to their residential landscaping, along with concerns for Lyme disease.

Since the culling began, 1,289 deer have been removed, which has enabled the forest floor to begin to rejuvenate, Bernier said.

"We're seeing plants return that we haven't seen in quite awhile--but it's slow," he said.

The hunt provides anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of venison annually for the needy, with the hunters allowed to keep 20 pounds for themselves. The cost of the hunt has also been dramatically reduced, from $55,000 in the first year, to a cost now of $3,000. The number of marksmen has also been trimmed from over 90 to now about 11 in the woods at any one time.

Bernier told wildlife officials that the hunt is conducted under strict rules that hold all participants to a high degree of accountability. "We account for every shot, every hit, every miss," he said.

Predl said that every deer that is taken is examined, with data recorded for continual review.

While the argument has been made that hunts cause deer populations to increase because the surviving deer have less competition, Predl said an analysis of the Watchung data shows that is not the case.

Without a deer hunt, even conservative projections indicate the reservation would now be home to nearly 1,400 deer, Predl said. The most recent count determined that there are now about 77 deer in the reservation.

Also discussing the region's deer problems was Dr. Gino D'Angelo, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's wildlife services branch. D'Angelo oversaw a deer hunt in a section of Bucks County, Pa., just across the Delaware River northwest of Lambertville.

When deer grow overabundant, the entire ecosystem suffers, including the deer, he said, stressing there was no quick fix.

"It's no longer once and (we're) done," D'Angelo said. When the herds are left unchecked, "they're like a time bomb," he said.

The Bucks County hunts have led to a 15 percent reduction in deer-motor vehicle collisions and an increase in production at area farms by 18 percent, he said. Complaints from residents have dropped and the area's forests are showing signs of regeneration.

The recent protests by neighboring Essex County residents over the deer culling in the South Mountain Reservation was reminiscent of what Union County experienced when the Watchung hunts began, said County Manager George Devanney. But given the damage the deer were causing, residents came to accept the necessity of the hunt, he said.

"The county understands the emotional aspects of the deer culling," Devanney said. "But we have thrown the reservation's ecosystem out of balance and unless we reintroduce the deer's natural predators, like wolves, there is no other way to keep the deer population in check--and I don't think anyone is suggesting we do that."

New Jersey's deer population hit an all-time high in the mid-to-late '90s, said Carol Kandoth, who heads the state Department of Environmental Protection's Deer Project.

"Hunting is the most cost-effective and efficient method of control for any species," Kandoth said. "We had trap and transfer, but there is no place within the state to move them and most other states don't want them. And when you do move them, a third die anyway."

The original predators of deer were mountain lions and wolves and both species were eradicated several hundred years ago. In California, where they have allowed the cougar to remain, people have been killed and mauled, she said.

"When you inhabit the space that an animal normally inhabits, then you are responsible for managing the space that animal inhabits," Kandoth said.

Source: NJ.com

WISCONSIN NEWS: Deer Ticks in Range Expansion

Wisconsin deer ticks - the type known for carrying Lyme disease - are widely associated with the Northwoods. But now, they occupy a much larger territory.

In 1994, a deer tick "census" led by Dr. Susan Paskewitz, a UW-Madison Entomologist who specializes in mosquitoes and ticks, revealed the ticks had become established in the western two-thirds of the state. Since then, reports of Lyme disease and new infestations led Paskewitz to suspect that they had become prevalent throughout Wisconsin.

Last fall, Dr. Paskewitz conducted another census, and the results confirmed her suspicions. Dr. Paskewitz found that most places in Wisconsin are infested. The only area where ticks are not prevalent is in the southeast corner of the state near Bong Recreational Area.

The Wisconsin Division of Health and local health departments will now spend more time informing the public, with particular attention given to the state's doctors. They can often cure Lyme disease outright if it's caught during the first month after a bite. "But if the physician isn't aware that there are deer ticks in their area," says Paskewitz, "they may not look into that diagnosis very carefully."

Dr. Paskewitz also found deer ticks are appearing in heavily populated areas, including Madison, Milwaukee, Appleton and Oshkosh. Paskewitz predicts there will be an increase in bites among people who live in the cities, especially if they frequent natural areas just outside city limits. Homeowners whose properties are adjacent to natural spaces should also be aware of the risk.

She doesn't recommend curtailing outdoor activities. Instead, check yourself and your kids for ticks and seek treatment if you develop a bull's-eye shaped rash, or experience a rash of flu-like symptoms during the summer.

Source: wkowtv

RESEARCH NEWS: Climate Change Benefits Deer Ticks, Lyme Disease Projected to Get Worse

In a finding that suggests how global warming could impact infectious disease, scientists from Yale University, in collaboration with other institutions, have determined that climate impacts the severity of Lyme Disease by influencing the feeding patterns of deer ticks that carry and transmit it.

Deer ticks live for two years and have three stages of life – larval, nymphal and adult. They obtain one blood meal during each stage in order to survive. If the source of the first meal (a mouse, bird or other small animal) is infected with the bacterium that causes Lyme Disease, the tick also becomes infected and passes it on to its next meal source – be it wildlife or human – in its second life stage as a nymph.

But, as the Yale team demonstrates, it’s the seasonal cycle of feeding for each stage of the tick’s life that determines the severity of infection in a given region. The researchers found that this cycle is heavily influenced by climate. In the moderate climate of the Northeastern United States, larval deer ticks feed in the late summer, long after the spring feeding of infected nymphs. This long gap between feeding times directly correlates to more cases of Lyme Disease reported in the Northeast, say the scientists.

“When there is a longer gap, the most persistent infections are more likely to survive,” explains Durland Fish, Professor of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health and corresponding author of the study. “These persistent bacterial strains cause more severe disease in humans, leading more people to seek medical attention and resulting in more case reports.”

But in the Midwest, where there are greater extremes of temperature, there is a shorter window of opportunity for tick feeding, and therefore a shorter gap between nymphal and larval feedings. Because of this, report the scientists, Midwestern wildlife and ticks are infected with less persistent strains, which correlates with fewer cases of Lyme Disease reported in the Midwest.

The clear implication of this research, say the researchers, is that, as the planet warms, the Upper Midwest could find itself in the same situation as the Northeast: longer gaps between nymphal and larval feeding, and therefore, stronger, more persistent strains of Lyme Disease.

“Other diseases, such as malaria, have been projected to expand in response to climate change,” explains project leader Maria Diuk-Wasser, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health and senior author, “But this is the first study to show how the severity of disease can also be related to climate.”

Source: ScienceDaily

NEW HAMPSHIRE NEWS: Lyme Disease Cases Rise 80%

Areas of the Seacoast continue to have the highest number of Lyme disease cases in the state, recent data shows, and health officials are warning people to use caution as the warm weather starts to draw out ticks.

There were 1,590 reported cases of Lyme disease statewide in 2008 — an 80 percent increase from 2007 and a 600 percent increase from 2004, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

The highest number of cases was in Rockingham County, with 653 reported in 2008 — a 70 percent increase over the previous year. Hillsborough County and Strafford County had the second- and third-highest concentration of cases, respectively.

Across the border in Maine, southern York County has had the highest concentration of Lyme disease cases in the state in the last few years, said state Epidemiologist Dr. Kathleen Gensheimer.

A recent change to the government's definition of Lyme disease, making it more inclusive, is partly responsible for the increases, according to New Hampshire Public Health Director Jose Montero.

Suburban sprawl and people spending more time outdoors could also be factors, he said.

Gensheimer added that increased deer populations may also be responsible seeing how ticks feed off deer along with mice, birds, opossums, raccoons, dogs, cats, livestock and humans.

A New Hampshire DHHS survey last year found more than half the ticks in Rockingham and Strafford counties had Lyme disease. Results of a similar study will be released in the coming weeks, Montero said.

"We want people to know this disease can be serious, but can be preventable by avoiding being bitten," he said.

The greatest risk for Lyme disease is between May and August, when the black-legged tick, also known as a deer tick, is in the juvenile stage. The insect is the size of a poppy seed and very difficult to detect. Individuals are often unaware they have been bitten.

Source: Fosters Daily

MARYLAND/DC/VIRGINIA NEWS: Lyme Disease On Rise

A story in today's Washington Post highlights a rather alarming rise in confirmed Lyme Disease cases. Between 2005 and 2007:

The number of cases in Washington DC rose from 10 to 116.

The number of cases in Virginia rose from 274 to 959.

The number of cases in Maryland rose from 1235 to 2576.

"The adult ticks prefer to feed on deer, which are immune to the disease," Mead said. "Deer are the adult mating bars for black-legged ticks. That's where they like to meet their mates, and then they drop off to lay their eggs."

The spread of infected ticks in the Washington region has been dramatic as more farmland has been developed and deer have become ever more common roaming through back yards and parks.

Source: Washington Post

KANSAS NEWS: Too Many Deer in Shawnee Mission Park

Johnson County commissioners will be discussing at 9:30 a.m. today what to do about all the deer in Shawnee Mission Park.

People who live near the park are tired of deer destroying lawns and gardens, or leaving mounds of droppings. One woman in the area was diagnosed three years ago with Lyme disease, which is carried by infected ticks that thrive on deer.

According to the Lyme Association of Greater Kansas City, there are at least 400 deer in the park. The county parks board said this is at least eight times as many deer as the park can support. [The park is 1250 acres, so the deer population density is about 200 per square mile! - Ed.]

The parks board director said that he wants the district's biodiversity committee to come up with a plan to manage the deer herd. It could be a year before any plan could be put into place.

The park district is working on ordinances allowing for hunting of deer on public land, but these have not been approved.

Source: KMBC

MASSACHUSETTS NEWS: Struggling with Suburban Deer Management

Tom DePersia has been hunting in Marshfield for 25 years, long enough to see the deer population explode, as undeveloped land available for hunting shrinks.

Now, the town is seeing the results, DePersia said. Deer are roaming residential neighborhoods, running in front of cars, eating plantings and carrying Lyme disease into back yards.

Marshfield is among many South Shore towns struggling to balance public safety and what hunters say is the need to thin the deer population.

State regulations prohibit hunting within 500 feet of a dwelling and 150 feet of public roads. Towns can set additional restrictions on hunting on conservation land, and many do.

Marshfield closed conservation land to hunters 20 years ago.

The problem, hunters say, is that private undeveloped land, once open to hunters, has been sold off and developed, further limiting hunting.

Between 1971 and 1999, nearly 10,000 acres of forested land in 11 towns between Weymouth and Duxbury was developed for residential use, according to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.

Pembroke police Chief Michael Ohrenberger said hunting has “become less and less frequent over the years because of the limited space.”

Jason Zimmer of the state Division of Fisheries & Wildlife said it is important to keep open whatever land remains to help control deer populations.

“We always advocate for as much land open as possible,” he said. “Before too long, those are the only areas we’re going to have left to effectively manage the deer herd.”

Duxbury and Hanover now allow bow hunting on some conservation lands.

Hingham allows bow hunting with written permission from the conservation commission on certain parcels.

“Hunters are getting squeezed a bit,” Hanover Conservation Agent Patrick Gallivan said. “I think some of the areas that were really pretty rural, now there’s subdivisions right around that.”

Police say they get calls every year from residents, complaining about hunters.

Zimmer said some of the conflict is because people who move from the city to smaller South Shore towns aren’t used to seeing hunters.

“People have been hunting deer in Marshfield since deer have been in Marshfield; it’s not something new,” he said.

In Marshfield, the conservation commission will meet Wednesday night to begin talks about easing the hunting restriction on conservation land.

A decision will be made after a public hearing in March.

DePersia, who hunts with his sons, said the increasing population of deer has made people more aware of the problems associated with them.

“I think there’s more of an awareness of some of the damages and health risks ... where (residents ) want to see more hunting and thinning out the herd,” he said.

Source: The Daily News Tribune

NEW JERSEY NEWS: Essex County Contemplates Repeat Cull

Phyllis Kessler was driving past a northern New Jersey shopping mall a few years ago when five or six deer darted into the street. Almost all made it across - except the one under Kessler's front wheel.

She called the police, who shot and killed the injured animal as she stood nearby.

"It was terrible," Kessler recalled.

Such incidents could decline if local officials have their way. For a second year in a row, Essex County plans to use trained marksmen to help thin the deer population of a 2,000-acre land preserve in northern New Jersey.

The 10-day hunt in the South Mountain Reservation is designed to cull white-tailed deer, which reproduce quickly and are a problem for many New Jersey communities because they ravage vegetation, cause traffic accidents and carry ticks that spread Lyme disease.

Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr. said the hunt will be held from Jan. 27 until Feb. 26.

DiVincenzo said the area "is being devastated" by the hungry animals.

This year's hunt is not unexpected. Last year, DiVincenzo said it might take several years to thin the herd to about 60 deer - the number of deer he said the area can safely handle. Editor's note: that's about 20 per square mile and about the right number of deer. The goal this year, he said, is to kill at least 100.

Last spring, volunteer marksmen killed 213 of the hundreds of deer estimated to live in the preserve. Of those, 88 were pregnant females.

Most of the meat from last year's hunt was donated to the Community FoodBank of New Jersey. DiVincenzo said the meat would again be donated there this year.

The preserve borders hundreds of high-priced homes in the thick of the country's most crowded state and residents and animal activists have objected to the hunt.

"It's so wrong on so many levels," Angi Metler, director of the New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance, said Thursday.

Deer-culling, as it's known, has stirred controversy in other states. A lawsuit was recently filed in a Detroit suburb to stop a herd-thinning program. Last year, near San Francisco, protesters rallied against a deer-culling program there.

Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said his group supports sharpshooting as a tool for population control but would also like to see a strategy that incorporates non-lethal tactics.

A total of nine municipalities in New Jersey have deer-culling programs, according to the Department of Environmental Protection.

A more natural way, he noted, is to have predators in the area. But Tittel doesn't expect that anytime soon.

"I don't think anyone wants wolves and mountain lions" in northern New Jersey, he said.

Source: Newsday