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One Health commentary…One Health and Tickborne Diseases

One Health commentary...

One Health and Tickborne Diseases

*Lisa A. Conti, DVM, MPH and Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP

Most of the country (USA) experienced a relatively mild winter this year.

This combined with wet weather provides ideal conditions for ticks to

thrive. Large tick populations increase the chances of people and

pets becoming infected with tick-borne diseases such as Lyme disease,

Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis, and anaplasmosis.

Salivary toxins of imbedded ticks may also result in Tick Paralysis

for both people and pets.

State public health departments track tick-borne infectious disease in

humans and provide epidemiologic profiles of reported data.

Veterinary clinicians can provide pet owners with tick preventatives

for pets and failing that, offer blood testing for several tick-borne

diseases. We encourage veterinarians to report positive results to

their local public health departments to provide sentinel information

that may prevent human disease.

The Wall Street Journal article, "This Season's Ticking Bomb"

provides a summary of tick-borne disease as a One Health issue that

requires a collaborative approach to mitigate.

*Drs. Conti and Kahn are members of the One Health Initiative team.

One Health Initiative Autonomous pro bono Team:

Laura H. Kahn, MD, MPH, MPP ▪ Bruce Kaplan, DVM ▪

Thomas P. Monath, MD ▪ Jack Woodall, PhD ▪

Lisa A. Conti, DVM, MPH

Posted One Health Initiative website’s NEWS page March 29, 2012