2004 Life, Science and Health: Diseases Across Species
ARCHIVED
TICK ATTACK! The Emergence of Diverse Diseases
Ticks are notorious disease vectors in the United States and around the world. In the last 30 years, Lyme disease, human babesiosis and Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis have emerged in North America as some of the most common and burdensome infections transmitted by arthropods. Ticks also transmit a rare but frequently fatal encephalitis-causing virus. Why have some of these infections, unknown in the U.S. prior to the early 1970s, emerged with such ferocity? How did they get here? Why have they become such intractable problems in the northeastern and north central United States? To answer these questions we must understand ticks and how they are affected by the human footprint on the landscape. This lecture will first review the basics of tick biology, and then examine how scientists are attempting to answer these questions using the disciplines of ecology, microbiology and molecular biology. This interdisciplinary approach allows a more complete understanding of the complex interactions that occur between microbes, arthropods, vertebrates and the landscape.
Greg Ebel, Sc.D.
Dr. Ebel is a research scientist in the Wadsworth Center's arbovirus laboratories. He joined the center in 2000 as part of the team investigating the West Nile virus (WNV) outbreak in New York State. In addition to his arbovirus surveillance work, he is involved in several research projects examining the interactions of arthropod-borne viruses and their arthropod hosts. In particular, his recent research examines comparative mosquito-transmission potential of genetically distinct West Nile virus strains, and on the role of within-host genetic diversity in arbovirus evolution. Dr. Ebel received his doctorate from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2000 for studies on Powassan virus, a tick-borne virus distantly related to WNV. He recently received funding from the National Institutes of Health to support his research on WNV evolution.