Section:OBS 2N PaGe:18 Edition Date:190804 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 3/8/2019 18:03 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Observer
18 04.08.19 News
Deer slaughter may
not stem rise in Lyme
disease, experts warn
Scientists urge caution
because infected ticks
may also be spread by a
range of other speciesestimated. This triggered calls for a
cull of deer – a major host of adult
ticks – with one writer suggesting
that the nation should develop a taste
for “Bambiburgers”.
Professor Lucy Gilbert , an animal
ecologist at Glasgow University and
an expert on pests and parasites, said
it was widely accepted that recorded
incidents of Lyme disease have been
increasing and that it was “defi nitely
accepted” that the number of ticks in
the environment has risen in recent
decades.
“It is highly likely that the increase
and abundance of deer is one of the
causes of the increase of ticks in
the environment,” said Gilbert, who
pointed out that the number of red
deer in Scotland has increased by
“something like four times since the
1960s” and, that they are now spread-ing south to the north of England and
into Wales.
She added that studies also sug-
gested populations of roe deer have
been spreading over the past 50
years, and that muntjac deer , once
only found in the south of England,
are now encroaching on the Scottish
border.
But Gilbert counselled against
drawing a correlation between
greater deer numbers and an increase
in reported cases of Lyme disease.
“Lyme disease risk is determined
by the density of infected ticks, not
the density of ticks,” she said. “And
deer do not infect ticks.”
Professor Rory Putman , a research
biologist and chair of the British
Deer Society , explains that this is
because deer are “non-competent
hosts” for Borrelia burgdorferi , theJamie DowardBritain’s deer are being unfairly
singled out as the chief culprits in
spreading Lyme disease , experts
claim. By contrast, they say the role
played by other factors – and animals- should also be examined.
Open season on deer commenced
last week when the BMJ reported
that UK cases of the disease, a
bacterial infection passed to humans
by an infected tick bite, may be
three times higher than previously
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