By Justin Isherwood – Special to the Gazette

Ticks get bad press because of the wicked something called tick-borne disease. Sixteen tick-borne diseases are known to science, four discovered since 2013, all of which present a problem for human health as well as pets and wild animals.

It is now believed predation by ticks on Maine’s moose population is a factor for their continued survival. Ticks are apparently the origin of “ghost moose” known to haunt the Maine Woods. In reality, an infested moose so completely covered by ticks that the moose appears a ghostly gray coloration. For the record, 50,000 ticks have been found on one moose.

The problem presented by tick-borne diseases is their symptoms overlap, so routine blood tests are not able to separate and diagnose specific disease vectors. The classic symptoms of fever, fatigue, joint pain and rashes can vary widely between individuals making diagnosis difficult, to the end clinicians often prescribe an antibiotic treatment based on the chance of disease presence.

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