Tag Archives: ticks
Ticks and summertime
Everyone who agrees with this statement, raise your hands. “The world would be a better place without ticks!” Ha, just as I suspected! Everyone who has ever “gotten a tick” raised their hands. Everyone else has a blank look on their face. For the uninitiated, ticks are eight-legged arachnids more closely related to spiders than insects. While all tick species feed on blood, some feed on wild animals and rarely bite people. Other ticks readily hitch rides on, and bite humans. Ticks are most commonly encountered in fields or… Read More →
Have you hugged your zoonosis expert today?
You have probably been thinking about zoonoses (zew oh NO sees, plural form of zoonosis) this week whether you realized it or not. A zoonosis is any infectious disease that can be spread from animals to humans, or vice versa. It’s estimated that over 60% of human pathogens that cause disease are zoonoses. One of the most common ways zoonoses spread is via some form of vector, or intermediate host (carrier) that serves to spread the pathogen. Mosquitoes, for example, are vectors for a variety of zoonotic diseases… Read More →