Disease prevention, deer population reduction focus of Island tick ... - Martha's Vineyard Times

'Tick-Borne Diseases on Martha's Vineyard,' a free talk hosted by New England tick experts, took place on Saturday morning in Vineyard Haven at the Katherine Cornell Theatre. 

Speakers included Dr. Sam Telford, a tick specialist from Tufts University and also a professor of infectious diseases and global health at the Cummings School of Veterinary Health, and Dr. Robert Smith, an infectious disease physician and tick-borne disease specialist from the Maine Medical Center. The talk also included local tick expert, Patrick Roden-Reynolds, director of the MV Tick Program. The morning's event was led and moderated by Dr. Gerry Yukevich of Vineyard Medical Care. 

Roden-Reynolds addressed the island tick populations, consisting of deer ticks, dog ticks, and lone stars, and went over basic prevention strategies, like thorough tick-check after time outdoors and permethrin-treated clothing. He also reminded those in attendance of the talk of the MV Tick Programs yard survey offering. Anyone can book a yard survey where Roden-Reynolds will come assess a property for ticks. 

Dr. Smith spoke next on the multitude of different types of tick-borne diseases and different warning signs, including images of the stereotypical "bull's eye" rash. There are a number of diseases and afflictions apart from the two best known — Lyme disease from deer ticks, and Alpha Gal syndrome from lone stars — that island ticks may carry.

Other tick-borne illnesses islanders should be aware of include anaplasmosis, babesiosis, tularemia, borrelia mayonii and miyamotoi, ehrlichiosis, powassan disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI). These diseases are primarily caused by bacteria that are transmitted from the tick via bite. 

Lastly, Sam Telford spoke on tularemia, citing previous studies conducted on dog tick populations on the island from the 1990's through the 2010's. Dog ticks are the primary carriers of the bacteria that causes tularemia. They also carry Rocky Mountain spotted fever, but according to Telford, the positivity rate for ticks with Rocky Mountain spotted fever on-Island was less than 4 out of 10,000, making it fairly rare. 

Telford warned that tularemia, on the other hand, could pose a serious threat, as it has in the past. In 1978 and 2000, the Island had tularemia outbreaks that Telford said were not necessarily caused by tick bites, but by airborne transmission, which he termed "pneumonic outbreaks." 

According to Telford, though being bitten is certainly one way to contract the illness, these pneumonic outbreaks were caused by tiny aerosolized particles containing the bacteria that people then inhaled. Aside from being airborne, tularemia can persist in soil and water outside of a host. 

Signs and symptoms of infection can be mild to severe and can occur between 24 hours to 21 days after exposure. Symptoms tend to be flu-like and can include headache, body aches, fever, fatigue, chills, vomiting, sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, and abdominal pain.

Telford said tularemia tends to "hit you like a train." Because tularemia can be aerosolized and can exist outside of a host in water or soil, it is thought to be highly infectious.

To protect against tularemia, Telford advised to never try to crush or break apart a dog tick. Should the tick be carrying tularemia, destroying it in this way could actually lead to exposure to the pathogen. The proper way to remove a tick is with tweezers. Ticks should be disposed of by wrapping them in scotch tape or duct tape and then thrown away or flushed down the toilet. 

For landscapers and yard workers, airborne tularemia can pose a real threat. A question from the audience asked if a mask should be worn when mowing the lawn or weed wacking. Roden-Reynolds confidently answered: "Yes."  

Questions from the audience spanned from Lyme disease-related questions to what to do if you've been bitten to how best to manage the deer population. 

As far as suspected tick bites, the experts all said the "industry standard" was to take 200 mgs of doxycycline as a preventative measure if they were bitten or suspected a tick bite. As Dr. Smith said during the talk, "It's the tick you don't find that you need to worry about." 

Although they did not recommend that every Islander be supplied with an emergency dose of antibiotic, they did say for older people who have been bitten, 200 mgs of doxy is a safe and effective way to protect from disease. 

An audience member brought up the resistance she had faced in the past when trying to obtain a preventative doxycycline prescription from the hospital. The panel discussed the potential negatives of overusing antibiotics, like promoting medicine-resistant strains of bacteria and the toll of eliminating helpful gut bacteria. Still, for islanders who face these diseases just by walking outside, especially the older community, a timely dose of doxycycline can be life-saving.  

Telford also spoke of a protective and preventative Lyme disease vaccine being developed by biotech companies Valneva and Pfizer, which he anticipated to be available in 2025. According to the CDC, the vaccine would provide seasonal protection against Lyme disease. 

"We know it's safe and effective, but it doesn't mean we don't need to have other approaches in the pipeline, including better personal protection, better ways of modifying the environment, better insecticides," Telford said.  

Former Director of the MV Tick Program Richard Johnson was in attendance, and spoke about strategies to reduce lyme disease on the island, which also involves reducing deer herd populations. 

Dr. Yukevich was in support of reducing deer on the island. "I don't see any reason why we can't cull," said Yukevich, "I think the deer are doing too much damage."

Yukevich proposed a longer hunting season, but Roden-Reynolds reminded that any change to hunting regulation is tied to legislature and requires changing laws. Massachusetts recently extended the deer hunting season to December 31st. 

"Rob and I are among the nation's biggest voices in terms of deer reduction to reduce the risk of Lyme disease," said Telford, referring to fellow panelist Dr. Robert Smith. Telford's doctoral work included a deer reduction experiment on Great Island. "We reduced the herd by 80%, saw the tick numbers fall precipitously 80% or more, and that has remained stable," Telford said of the results of his experiment.  

"Once it's down, tell the caretaker to keep the population at this level by taking this number of deer on the property per year, and don't let it get 6 to 8 animals per square mile," he said. 

There are even island incentives for hunters to take as many deer without antlers as they can. After the first two females, the hunters are paid $100 per female deer. 

"That's the main part, if you want to reduce island deer population, you focus on the females," said Roden-Reynolds. 

He spoke about the MV Tick program's involvement with hunters over the winter. Ten donated deer amounted to 400 pounds of meat distributed to the food pantry and other organizations on the island to help feed the hungry. According to Roden-Reynolds, with the deer population, the Island is still in need of more hunters. 

"In the end, I'd be willing to bet the average hunter takes 1 or 2 deer," he said. "It takes a lot of time to go hunting and to process the animal. We simply need more hunters on the ground and more access to private properties that provide breeding or secure havens for deer." 

Johnson spoke of a property in West Tisbury where no hunting was allowed. A fly over survey in recent years revealed there were 100 deer per square mile on that property. 

"We encourage bow and arrow hunting and access," Johnson said. "There are a lot of areas where you can't hunt. You need permission if you're hunting within 500 feet of a house." 

Johnson thought that there should be more access for hunters using bows and arrows, a hunting method thought to be safer than guns. As far as getting the island's deer herds under control, Johnson described two methods used to cull deer populations: One involved spotlighting the deer herds at night, and another that involved luring the deer to an area by feeding them, and then shooting them. 

"There was this program where they put out apples, let the deer come in, and shoot them as they come to eat the apples. That was very effective. They took 100 deer down to 10 deer very quickly," said Johnson. "Politically, I can't imagine something like that," going over well here on Martha's Vineyard. 

Telford was also in favor of allowing bow and arrow hunting to manage the deer population. "One thing that would really help is to remove the environmental setback from 500 feet of an inhabited house to 150 feet for bow hunting," Telford said. "All other states have this. Massachusetts is unique in not having this." 

Saturday's talk was supported by grants from the Martha's Vineyard Hospital, Vineyard Medical Center, Island Health Care, Duke's County Public Health Departments, and the Fledgling Fund. 

The conference was recorded by MVTV and will be available to be viewed in full this week on the MVTV website under the Video on Demand section.

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