Dear Editor:
RE: Pilot study indicates new disease species could be transferred from deer ticks to humans, July 8.
Contrary to the title, blacklegged ticks (deer ticks) do transmit Babesia odocoilei, a red blood cell parasite, to multiple vertebrate hosts, including humans.
I am not involved in “tinkering with ticks” because they are a ticking time bomb that can ruin one’s life. Throughout 31 years of tick research, I have collaborated with seven universities and educational institutions regarding the complex ecology of ticks. My credentials are not “self-proclaimed.” In fact, I have written and published 48 peer-reviewed scientific articles, and I have withstood the rigours of grueling peer-review.
PHAC suggests that there is a disconnect between cause and effect because they do not understand the validity of the testing methods used. Molecular identification using DNA technology provides definitive proof of human babesiosis caused by Babesia odocoilei. No other technology tops this proof. Moreover, our university-based study was evaluated by an international biomedical body that rules on human ethical studies. We met the most stringent, professional criteria in the world and this study was comprehensively peer-reviewed.
In the study, blood was drawn from each participant, and the source and symptoms are not in question. Our study stands firmly on its own merits.
In order to further show that Babesia odocoilei is pathogenic, subjects would have to be inoculated with this microorganism. It would be illegal, immoral and unethical to inoculate anyone with Babesia odocoilei. Such a study would be blocked by a human ethics committee before it even got started.
The fully engorged nymph in the photo, which was collected from a gray catbird, molted to a female in 42 days. In nature, it would start host-seeking activities in
October, and put the public at risk for tick-borne diseases.
My tick research goes far beyond “tinkering.”
John Scott,
Fergus