Warmer climate good for the ticks

Ticks: Erlend Aas / NTB scanpix

Deer has got much of the blame for the spread of the ticks disease Lyme disease, but warmer climate also plays a big part, according to new research.

The last 20 years the disease has spread and gained much attention. Now, however,  new research shows that larger populations of deer can not explain the increase alone. Other factors, such as warmer climate and less cutting and grazing in agriculture, are probably just as important causes.

– The tick needs about 5 degrees to be active, and an earlier spring means that the tick season gets longer. In recent decades, spring has arrived two to three weeks earlier than before,  Atle Mysterud, professor at the Institute of Biosciences at the University of Oslo, says to the New Norwegian press office.

The research is part of the project TickDeer and was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.
Mysterud say it is not enough to reduce the number of deer to prevent increase in the number of cases of the disease, although the management of the population may affect the cases of Lyme disease. The tick does not depend on deer to evolve, but female ticks need blood from an animal weighing more than 1 kg to reproduce.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today