In Acorns And Mice Driving Unusual Lyme Disease Risks by Maryn McKenna, posted on March 13 2012, the author examines the reason why the northeastern half of the U.S. faces what could be the worst year yet for Lyme disease and other tic born infections.
The reason for it as Dr. Richard S. Ostfeld explains is, "that a heavy crop of acorns in 2010...fueled a 2011 population bloom in white-footed mice[seen above], which stash acorns for winter food and begin breeding
earlier in years when they are well-fed."
Dr. Ostfeld goes on to explain, that the boost in the mice population could lead to an abundance of infectious tics. These infected tics could easily attach themselves to lager mammals like deer, or an unsuspecting hiker.
This part of the article can be related back to the influenza outbreak that the class studied not too long ago. Like influenza, Lyme disease goes from one species to the next.
Just like the wild birds that carry the flu, the white-footed mice carry Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterial cause of Lyme disease, without being infected. In the case of Lyme disease it will go from the mouse, to the tic, and to any animal the tic latches on to.
McKenna writes that Dr. Ostfeld is working with health departments in the northeast area to ensure that the word gets out to hikers and other nature enthusiasts, to take extreme caution when going through woodsy areas in order to prevent tic bites and the Lyme disease that could follow.
I found it very interesting that a small change in nature, in this case an abundance of acorns, could lead to an infectious disease outbreak. The way this disease is spread is very interesting too; the infected mice eat the acorns, leading to a boom in infected mice population as well as in the population of the tics that feed off of them. This all leads to a surplus of infected tics looking for a new host, which will end in the spread of disease.
For further reading, see here: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/acorns-mice-lyme/
I also thought this article was very interesting. Like Annie said, it is crazy how a small change in the amount of acorns can increase the cases of an epidemic disease. Another thing I liked about this article was that it was about Lyme Disease. My cousin’s dog was killed from a deer tick that carried this disease so I am always interested in learning more. Also, this article shows how every aspect in the environment is important. Something as small as an acorn can increase an animal population and result in a rise of an epidemic disease. This relates to a class because it talks about the spread of a disease. Finally this article mentions things like vectors and how Lyme Disease is transmitted.
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