brookhaven national lab tick lyme disease

On the East Coast, that is commonly deer and white-footed mice.

For that to happen, they need to draw blood from a mammal host that can harbor B. Ticks on their own do not carry the bacterium that causes Lyme. Still, the coastal shrubs and grasses are surprising new habitat for the disease because those ecosystems are not home to the traditional reservoir hosts. Shots - Health News Ticks And Lyme Disease: 3 Factors Determine Risk Of InfectionĪccording to the research in Northern California, Salkeld said, about 4% of adult ticks - which are larger and easier to discover - are carriers of the bacterium. So the risk in Southern California is really low,' he said. found 1 out of 5,000-plus ticks are actually infected. 'Three combined studies done by other researchers. It appears they're also moving farther south, including to Malibu, Manhattan Beach and Newport Beach, Salkeld told NPR affiliate KCRW - though he notes that the threat of Lyme disease is minimal in those areas. An unexpected home in Californiaĭan Salkeld, a biology researcher at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, led a four-year study that found the ticks on beaches along much of Northern California, from Mendocino County down to Monterey County. But new research shows the blood-sucking critters are capable of thriving along the West Coast too, though experts don't exactly know why or how. The black-legged arachnids that carry Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme, are common on the East Coast, where they usually are found in wooded areas and tall grass. Black-legged ticks carrying the bacterium that causes Lyme have been found in the coastal chaparrals surrounding California beaches.Īs temperatures rise in California and people in search of respite head for the beach, there's a new concern beyond damaging sun rays and strong undercurrents: disease-carrying ticks that appear to be spreading all along the Golden State's coast.

Brookhaven national lab tick lyme disease