Large Animal Loss Increases Tick Risk.

• Position: ZOONOTIC DISEASES - Brief article

Around the world, ticks are one of the most-important vectors of zoonotic diseases--animal diseases communicable to humans--and they are everywhere.

While North Americans worry about Lyme disease carried by blacklegged or deer ticks, on the other side of the globe people contend with a different variety of tick-borne fevers. A study by University of California, Santa Barbara, researchers and colleagues suggests that the abundance of ticks that carry certain fevers are likely to rise in the future, thanks to a combination of wildlife loss and climate change.

The study used a large-scale experimental test to demonstrate synergistic effects of those phenomena on ticks and their pathogens. The investigators found that total tick population and...