Photo: Iowa State University Entomology Image Gallery
It’s only fitting that this podcast blog includes a picture of the USA’s current favorite villainous vector, the deer tick Ixodes scapularis, which carries multiple organisms capable of causing disease in susceptible individuals. After I recorded this podcast, I recalled two articles that may have fueled my subconscious podcaster. One was about palioentomologist George Poinar, Jr’s discovery of a Borrelia-like bacterium within the bodies of preserved ticks. (In the US, Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi carried primarily by deer ticks.) What makes his discovery so important is the these ticks were preserved in amber 15 million years ago. In other words the ticks and the bacteria were around a long time before we were. The second article described a plan to genetically modify mosquitoes to self-destruct, but also input from scientists who question the wisdom of this approach.
The great majority of the animals labeled as vectors as well as any potentially pathogenic micro-organisms they carry superficially may appear vulnerable to our technology. But it would be foolish to assume that the combination of their shorter life cycles and much (!) longer residence on the planet than ours hasn’t given them survival skills beyond our wildest dreams.
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