Topic: EPA Funds Ground-Breaking Lyme Disease Research
Melanie Reber
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EPA Funds Ground-Breaking Lyme Disease Research
Release date: 07/31/2008
Contact Information: Caroline Newton (212) 637-3666, [email protected]
(New York, NY) In the United States, Lyme disease is the most frequently reported disease that can be passed from animals to humans. These animal-borne diseases can make people very sick, and proper anticipation of disease outbreaks and effective intervention are crucial to protecting the public. Scientists at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies recently received $750,000 in grant funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help safeguard human health by gaining a better understanding of the Lyme disease life cycle.
``Most people overlook the possibility of acquiring Lyme disease or other tick- and insect-transmitted diseases,'' said EPA Regional Administrator Alan J. Steinberg. ``Certain areas here in New York, however, have among the highest incident rates of Lyme disease in the United States.''
The Lyme disease research team is headed by a group of five investigators. Its focus is on how the interactions between ticks, bacterial pathogens, animal and human hosts, and the landscapes in which they interact, affect exposure to Lyme disease. The objective is to understand how diversity of different host species, as affected by man-made changes to the landscape and other social stressors, drive human risk of infection with Lyme disease.
This will be done with experimental field work to study and manipulate three major animal hosts for ticks: white-footed mice, eastern chipmunks, and gray squirrels. Ticks that feed on mice and chipmunks frequently get infected with Lyme bacteria, whereas those that feed on squirrels and other animals do not.
``Some spots within the Northeast are much riskier than others,'' said Cary Institute researcher Dr. Richard S. Ostfeld, ``and we've developed specific hypotheses to explain why. The new funding from EPA will allow us to test these hypotheses in the field, and the resulting knowledge should help inform habitat management to reduce human risk.''
These studies will be conducted in Dutchess County, New York, an area of the country where Lyme disease is a problem. The scientists expect that communities where hosts other than mice are abundant - high biodiversity communities - will be characterized by a lower rate of ticks infected with B. burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. In this way, high biodiversity might protect human health. EPA funding for this study will last through December 31, 2010.
This is one of three biodiversity grants issued in 2008 under EPA's Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program. These three grants will bring together ecologists, biologists, public health experts, earth scientists, and social scientists. Together, they will integrate data on ecosystems, human health and man-made stressors such as deforestation to investigate how environmental factors and people's behaviors contribute to disease transmission.
lymednva
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quote: ``Certain areas here in New York, however, have among the highest incident rates of Lyme disease in the United States.''
So Lyme is only a problem in the northeast? Get a grip! My county in VA was the second highest in the country last I heard. And I got Lymed in OK as a kid, over 40 years ago.
I think plenty of researchers can answer their questions already, they just aren't the ones that grab the limelight all the time.
-------------------- Lymednva Posts: 2407 | From over the river and through the woods | Registered: Apr 2006
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IF LYME AND TICK BORNE INFECTIONS ARE EASY TREATED ISSUES WHY IS THERE SO MUCH MONEY GOING INTO RESEARCHES FROM SO MANY DIFFERESNT DIRECTIONS!?!?!?!?!?!?!
they KNOW more than they will admit
because they DONT have the answers!!!!!
-------------------- Seeking renewed health & vitality. --------------------------------- Do not take anything I say as medical advice - I am NOT a dr! Posts: 830 | From TN | Registered: Aug 2007
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groovy2
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Things are changing --thanks for posting -Jay-
Posts: 2999 | From Austin tx USA | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
One's again, more money spent on research, that in the end, will lead us know were. It's the same old thing, tick protection, tick location, animal's, forest's. I REALLY wanted know that. On and On it goes.
More like, it's a job, easy money.
I see nothing in there for us, far too difficult, complicated, switch your brain on research.
posted
"So Lyme is only a problem in the northeast?"
To be fair to the author, he only stated that certain areas of N.Y., have the highest incidence rate of Lyme anywhere in the U.S. I don't think that translates to your statement above.
-------------------- Craig Posts: 207 | From Tallahassee, Florida | Registered: Nov 2007
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posted
Agreed
Posts: 95 | From nys | Registered: Jan 2008
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Melanie Reber
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I usually check to see if something has already been posted before I add a new topic...
so my apologies to Joe. I didn't notice that you had already put this article in General earlier in the evening before I posted it here.
I will try to be more thorough in the future. ....
As for the study. I actually think it is a good thing that the EPA is getting involved with this. We have known for a long time that human intervention will cause environmental changes.
Biodiversity decline and climatic droughts are only 2 important consequences of humans destroying larger green spaces and breaking them into smaller patches.
By creating more edge conditions, we are inadvertently creating catastrophes that are coming back to bite us- literally.
Yes...we can say that this is a 'given'. But it seems that w/out solid studies on things, some are still unwilling to see the after-effects so clearly playing out before them.
So, if it takes a study to be the catalyst for change, I say, this is a good thing.
Once done...it is very difficult to undo.
However, many in the Landscape Architecture fields have been pushing for a long time to re-create connecting green spaces in our communities. These are allowing some bio-diversity back into our environments, and are also lowering the heat-island effects of nearby urban areas.
Posts: 7052 | From Colorado | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Nice if you can see the wider picture Mel. But some of these studies seem to keep to lead us to just another dead end. For instance, QUOTE, Environmental heath officers are calling for help for landowners to find ways to eradicate the ticks. This is a UK article. Tick Explosion. It is believed 10,000 Brits are infected each year.
But the government says the problem is not big here, only in the US. So we are ruled by the IDSA.
The point I am making is, are they LISTENING to the Environmental Officers. The silence is deafening.
If they can't make the Government take this more seriously, then WHO can.
Posts: 153 | From England | Registered: Jun 2008
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Melanie Reber
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I don't know really Herx...I never claimed to have any answers. I DO think the questions are important though.
Questions like why are we spending money to even study something that is difficult to catch and easy to cure?
If the study is worthy enough for 750 grand, then that tells me that someone is admitting there might just be a problem.
If the government, any government agency, is getting involved with those questions...at least it is still keeping the door open for discussion in my viewpoint.
Sure, we would like to say just spend the money on something else that directly effects those who are already suffering...but, we also have to think of those that will suffer in the future if these questions aren't even being raised.
Bottom line for me is that with government recognition of a problem, and even stronger recognition that the environment plays a role in this problem, this is at least a step in the right direction.
Posts: 7052 | From Colorado | Registered: Mar 2003
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Boomerang
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Hopefully things are changing. Thanks for the info!
Posts: 1366 | From Southeast | Registered: Sep 2005
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Melanie Reber
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Here is a secondary article that touches on what I was trying to explain above. ...
8.1.2008 8:43 AM
Understanding the Causes of Lyme Disease Suburban Sprawl, Biodiversity and the Ecology of a Debilitating Illness
The Environmental Protection Agency is backing one of the nation's top Lyme disease researchers in an effort to better understand how illness survives in the environment, and how to cut down on infections in humans.
With more than 20,000 cases diagnosed every year (including one this summer in the author) Lyme disease is the most common disease passed from animals to humans. It is caused by a bacteria that lives primarily in the blood of white-footed mice and certain other woodland mammals, like chipmunks. It is passed to ticks in their early life stages, and then can be passed on to humans as those blood-sucking arachnids seek out bigger hosts for blood meals.
Lyme, if caught early, causes no serious or long-lasting symptoms. A flu-like illness and a bulls-eye rash are the most common early symptoms. Untreated, it can lead to debilitating problems like arthritic joint pain, neurological damage and heart problems.
The EPA has awarded a $750,000 grant to the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., so Ecologist Rick Ostfeld can continue ground-breaking research into the ecological conditions that lead to disease outbreaks.
Lyme disease is one of the classic examples of an epidemic made by environmental change: As forests and fields are carved up into subdivisions, the habitat that makes the disease spread increases. The mice and deer that carry the ticks are more numerous, as is the Lyme-causing bacteria in the mice blood, as are the people in the suburban homes where the disease is endemic.
Ostfeld has conducted fascinating research showing that the loss of biodiversity in these small forest patches leads to increased incidence of disease because the tick hosts available are dominated by mice and other mammals that carry the Lyme bacteria, whereas there is a "dilution effect" in larger, healthier environments with a more diverse assemblage of wildlife.
Melanie Reber
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We have had studies on killing Bambi. Guess what...it did NOT reduce disease. (I'm not certain how much THAT cost, but I would speculate it was a pretty penny)
We can not expect to single out any ONE aspect of the food chain and expect that elimination to do the trick. It just doesn't work that way.
Things are out of balance, and we need to find ways to restore that ecological balance.
Mandatory physician training would be great- but who is going to do the training? If it was conducted by the powers that be, honestly, we may be better off w/out it.
And as far as prevention? I can't even count how many inaccurate preventative articles that I have read over the last 5 years that claim to get their facts from the big experts.
There has to come a time where we can at least all agree on a few common beliefs, or we will never get anywhere with so much disinformation floating around.
Those common beliefs have to stem from the highest powers, or not many will take them seriously.
Therefore, we NEED to keep getting the government involved. We need to keep looking at the big picture. Because focusing on the details, which no one can agree on, is not working.
Please understand that I am not discounting anyone's opinion here. I have been here long enough now to understand where they come from.
Posts: 7052 | From Colorado | Registered: Mar 2003
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Melanie Reber
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Could Preserving Biodiversity Reduce Disease? EPA Funds $2.25 Million to Research Connections
Release date: 07/23/2008
Contact Information: Melissa Anley-Mills, 202 564 5179 or [email protected]
(Washington DC - July 23, 2008) Biodiversity has long been recognized by EPA as critical for environmental well-being. Humans rely on healthy ecosystems to provide food, clean air, and drinking water. But less understood is the connection between disease and biodiversity (the number and variety of plants and animals found in a geographic region). Recent studies suggest that maintaining biodiversity may protect us against diseases such as Lyme disease and West Nile encephalitis, the disease caused by West Nile Virus.
Changing land use and development have altered natural ecosystems greatly in the last 50 years, contributing to a decline in biodiversity. At the same time, there has been a rise in new infectious diseases as well as infectious diseases previously thought to be under control. To find out if there is a connection; EPA has funded three interdisciplinary teams to explore the links between biodiversity and human health.
The grants, totaling $2.25 million, support research programs working to better understand and characterize the mechanisms that link environmental stressors, such as deforestation and climate change, to the loss of biodiversity and the transmission of infections diseases to people. The grants are funded by EPA's Office of the Science Advisor and the Agency's Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, run by EPA's Office of Research and Development.
``Biodiversity loss and emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases are both of great concern,'' said George Gray, EPA Science Advisor and assistant administrator of the Office of Research and Development. ``With these grants, we can explore the possible linkages, so that policy-makers can make better decisions on land use and development, ecosystems, and integrated pest management--and possibly reduce or even prevent human disease.''
These three grants will bring together ecologists, biologists, public health experts, earth scientists, and social scientists. Together, they will integrate data on ecosystems, human health, and man-made stressors such as deforestation to investigate how environmental factors and people's behaviors contribute to disease transmission. The research will inform and also involve decision-makers to consider how land use and management decisions, as well as decisions on integrated pest management, can protect both human health and the environment.
The grants funded by EPA were awarded to:
* Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY, $750,000 - will investigate how differences in animal community composition affect the risk of Lyme disease transmission in Duchess County, NY.
* Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, $749,995 - will investigate the relationships between diversity in plant, bird, and mosquito populations and West Nile virus prevalence in urban wetland communities in northern NJ. The research team will also consider how people's attitudes about and behaviors in these wetlands affect their risk of disease transmission.
* University of California, Los Angeles, CA, $749,296 - will investigate the role of migratory birds in West Nile Virus transmission and use earth observations to better understand how climate and anthropogenic changes to the environment might predict risk.
posted
I've seen that, too, that they've tried killing deer in select areas and the incidence of Lyme was not affected, maybe because the ticks just change to other animals. And when deer are gone, the whole ecosystem is affected--plants, animals have their growth patterns change. There really is no simple answer.
And I think it's amazing that they only ever mention ticks. If malaria is carried by mosquitos, how do we know that Lyme and especially babesia are not spread by mosquitoes and mites and biting flies?
-------------------- Just because it' s not nice doesn' t mean it' s not miraculous. --Terry Pratchett Posts: 121 | From Nazareth, PA | Registered: May 2008
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