Dueling Studies—This Blows My Mind...

Klyde O'Scope

Klyde O'Scope

Chameleon Enthusiast
Unless I'm reading this wrong I don't think these are conflicting; the first states the presence of reptile reduces the prevalence of Lyme (a condition resulting from a bacteria that may be carried by ticks), but not the number of ticks themselves "When young nymphal ticks feed on the fence lizards, the mysterious protein not only protects the lizard from infection -- it actually leaches into the tick's gut and kills the bacteria there".

The second states that reduced reptile populations mean there are fewer ticks found "researchers found that 95 percent of the ticks that no longer had lizard blood to feast on failed to latch onto another host", which makes sense, as there are fewer hosts around.

Or maybe I'm just missing something 😄
 
Klyde O'Scope said:

kinyonga, redhorse​

It's not that contradicting studies blow my mind; that happens quite frequently—particularly in medicine.
It was the particular subject that caught my eye on these two articles. o_O🤪
I came across these trying to find out if chameleons or other reptiles can get or carry Lyme Disease...

Lizards Slow Lyme Disease in West / Ticks bite them -- and leave with purified blood​

and then this...

Numbers of Lyme Disease-Carrying Ticks Plummet in Absence of Western Lizards​

Click to expand...
My dad has a disease from a tick (maybe Lyme but I forgot) and they diease if he eats red meat he will have an asthemia atrack
 
Ooh, I've heard the lone star tick can carry something that'll cause people to go into anaphylaxis if they eat red meat! Sounds horrible, I'm sorry for your dad
 
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