“We’ve known for some time that ticks taken from a white-tailed deer are uninfected, and we suspected there was something wrong with the deer that prevented the ticks from becoming infected. But until the publication of our study, no one had done an experiment conducted to show that deer blood — more precisely, the serum from the blood of white-tailed deer — kills Lyme,” he said.
Rich is a professor of microbiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMA) and the director of the New England Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases (NEWVEC) where he and his team conducted the research.
The results of the study could potentially lead to new strategies and approaches for the prevention and treatment of Lyme disease in the future, said Patrick Pearson, a doctoral student at NEWVEC and the study’s lead author.
The bacteria that causes Lyme disease is passed on to young deer ticks (Ixodes scapularis) by infected mice whose ticks suck the blood. The infected ticks then transfer the bacteria to humans when they bite them and suck their blood.
“We are an accidental host,” said Rich. “The ticks that bite us are actually looking for a deer since that’s where they reproduce. Without the deer, you don’t have ticks, but if you only had deer, you wouldn’t have Lyme.”
