Mythbusting is a worthy goal for any forum or news publication, and with the release of the new, long term publicly accessible study the FALSE MYTH that the rate of Lyme Disease is connected to the number of deer will hopefully be eliminated once and for all since this 13 year, very comprehensive study found the same thing as earlier investigations: the critical factors are the numbers of ground nesting rodents which serve as reservoirs for Lyme Disease, and those rodents' food supplies. The deer simply are food sources for the same later stages of ticks as we people are. (In fact, in some studies of flea borne diseases killing off the alternative hosts for disease bearing fleas at the stages where they could feed on humans actually increased the number of those parasites on humans since they preferred animal food source was not available, so perhaps the same may happen with ticks.) This most recently completed study is titled: "Climate, Deer, Rodents, and Acorns as Determinants of Variation in Lyme-Disease Risk"and the authors who are from Bard College and the Institute of Ecosystem Studies are Doctors Richard S. Ostfeld, Charles D. Canham, Kelly Oggenfuss, Raymond J. Winchcombe, Felicia Keesing. The study abstract states: "Risk of human exposure to vector-borne zoonotic pathogens is a function of the abundance and infection prevalence of vectors. We assessed the determinants of Lyme-disease risk (density and Borrelia burgdorferi-infection prevalence of nymphal Ixodes scapularis ticks) over 13 y on several field plots within eastern deciduous forests in the epicenter of US Lyme disease (Dutchess County, New York). We used a model comparison approach to simultaneously test the importance of ambient growing-season temperature, precipitation, two indices of deer (Odocoileus virginianus) abundance, and densities of white- footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus), eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus), and acorns (Quercus spp.), in both simple and multiple regression models, in predicting entomological risk." It goes on to say, "Indices of deer abundance had no predictive power, and precipitation in the current year and temperature in the prior year had only weak effects on entomological risk." Notice that the factors which did matter were the numbers of the studied ground-nesting rodents and the foods they ate and collected for their winter sustenance: "The strongest predictors of a current year's risk were the prior year's abundance of mice and chipmunks and abundance of acorns 2 y previously." Lest an impact on those rodents or the acorns by deer be suggested, they continue, "In no case did inclusion of deer or climate variables improve the predictive power of models based on rodents, acorns, or both. We conclude that interannual variation in entomological risk of exposure to Lyme disease is correlated positively with prior abundance of key hosts for the immature stages of the tick vector and with critical food resources for those hosts." The pdf of the study which is in Volume 4, Issue 6, June 2006 of the Public Library of Science, PLOS Biology, open access, peer-reviewed science journal may be read at http://biology.plosjournals.org/archive/1545-7885/4/6/pdf/ 10.1371_journal.pbio.0040145-p-S.pdf and the full text article can be found at <http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document &doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0040145> Should the internet URLs change after the early announcement today, the volume and issue number, as well as the article title can be used by a reader or librarian to find the current locations. -- Sukie (not a vet, and not speaking for any of the below in my private posts) Recommended health resources to help ferrets and the people who love them: Ferret Health List http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth FHL Archives http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ AFIP Ferret Pathology http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html Miamiferrets http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ International Ferret Congress Critical References http://www.ferretcongress.org [Posted in FML issue 5238]