Control deer, control Lyme disease

Friday, Nov. 20, 2009

The excellent Nov. 13 article by Jay Friess [‘Oh deer!,' The Calvert Recorder] on hunting of white-tailed deer can be supplemented by information on the reduction in Lyme disease.

Hunting of deer is necessary since the wolf and cougar are gone, with our goal being pre-settlement density of 10 to 20 per square mile.

Lyme disease is an infection caused by the bacteria, Borrelia burgdorferi, which is carried and transmitted by infected deer ticks to the humans it bites in both back yards and forests.

Numerous studies have shown that deer population management is a critical tool to reduce human incidences of Lyme disease.

At Mumford Cove in Connecticut, for example, deer numbers were reduced by hunting to 10.4 deer per square mile and there are now only two to three Lyme cases a year compared to 30 new cases a year prior to the deer control according to a 2007 report from the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.

Lyme disease is the most commonly reported tick-borne disease in the United States. Maryland and Northern Virginia, as well as most of New England, are home to the highest rates of infection.

Dr. Marc Imlay, Bladensburg

The writer is a conservation biologist with the Anacostia Watershed Society.