A large number of Asian longhorned ticks have been found in New York and New Jersey according to a story in Univisión. These insects are widespread in the spring, but it has drawn the attention of experts that their presence occurs at this time of the year.
The Asian tick can live and reproduce in very high altitude grasslands, thus surviving climatic conditions.
These species pose a danger to some animals, especially livestock. There are already cases of cows dying due to the bites of these ticks. An infected animal can bleed to death.
The USDA stated that ticks can “pose significant infestations on warm-blooded animals.” According to a September article in the Journal of Medical Entomology, three cows were infected with ticks and died in Ohio. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been cases of up to a thousand ticks on just one animal.
The discovery was made by scientists from the American Journal of Entomology, who collected 10,000 ticks in Ohio grasslands in just 90 minutes. It was first discovered in the United States in 2017, and is now also found in Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and the Carolinas. From the South, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
You can read: This will be the minimum wage in New Jersey in 2024
“Preventing tick bites is essential. “Use tick repellent outdoors, wear clothing that covers your arms and legs, tuck your pants into socks, and remove ticks from people or animals as soon as possible,” the Mayo Clinic said on its website.
The ticks are “light brown in color and very small, often smaller than a sesame seed,” according to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website, which also explains that female Asian longhorned ticks can reproduce without a male, and that “it only takes One tick to create a community in a new location.”
Climate change?
In May this year, researcher José Antonio Autio told the Heraldo newspaper that climate change will increase the survival and reproduction of arthropod vectors. “Arthropod vectors – among which are ticks – represent a global public health problem and are estimated to be responsible for 17% of the infectious disease burden due to certain periods of drought, with subsequent heavy rains,” he told the publication.
He took up the case the first time an animal of this species was discovered in New Jersey in 2017, and a year later it was “almost all over the country.” He pointed out that although there are no specific disease cases in humans, its invasive potential is great.
“According to Autio, human, animal and environmental health are interconnected and decisions cannot be made taking into account only what happens in just one of them, but there must be a global approach,” the post showed.
