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This invasive tick can clone itself and suck livestock dry

JacksinPA

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https://www.sciencenews.org/article...ck-can-clone-itself-suck-livestock-dry?tgt=nr

Known as the longhorned tick or bush tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis is ubiquitous in Japan, China and the Korean Peninsula. The New Jersey sheep was the first documented sighting in the continental United States, say Rainey and Egizi, who published their findings online February 19 in the Journal of Medical Entomology.

Scientists say that it is rare to find an invasive tick species in the wild. And this one seems to be spreading. It has been discovered in at least three more states — Virginia, West Virginia and Arkansas — and warnings have been issued for Maryland.

Here are five reasons why scientists are keeping an eye on this sneaky invader.
====================================
This tick is one of the rare forms that clones itself. After feeding, a female lays hundreds of eggs that develop into adult ticks with no male intervention. They are a big threat to livestock & can transmit bacterial & viral disease to humans. And it is spreading rapidly.
 
https://www.sciencenews.org/article...ck-can-clone-itself-suck-livestock-dry?tgt=nr

Known as the longhorned tick or bush tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis is ubiquitous in Japan, China and the Korean Peninsula. The New Jersey sheep was the first documented sighting in the continental United States, say Rainey and Egizi, who published their findings online February 19 in the Journal of Medical Entomology.

Scientists say that it is rare to find an invasive tick species in the wild. And this one seems to be spreading. It has been discovered in at least three more states — Virginia, West Virginia and Arkansas — and warnings have been issued for Maryland.

Here are five reasons why scientists are keeping an eye on this sneaky invader.
====================================
This tick is one of the rare forms that clones itself. After feeding, a female lays hundreds of eggs that develop into adult ticks with no male intervention. They are a big threat to livestock & can transmit bacterial & viral disease to humans. And it is spreading rapidly.

Just what we needed, a brand new and very prolific sort of blood sucker. I wonder what diseases this one spreads?
 
https://www.sciencenews.org/article...ck-can-clone-itself-suck-livestock-dry?tgt=nr

Known as the longhorned tick or bush tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis is ubiquitous in Japan, China and the Korean Peninsula. The New Jersey sheep was the first documented sighting in the continental United States, say Rainey and Egizi, who published their findings online February 19 in the Journal of Medical Entomology.

Scientists say that it is rare to find an invasive tick species in the wild. And this one seems to be spreading. It has been discovered in at least three more states — Virginia, West Virginia and Arkansas — and warnings have been issued for Maryland.

Here are five reasons why scientists are keeping an eye on this sneaky invader.
====================================
This tick is one of the rare forms that clones itself. After feeding, a female lays hundreds of eggs that develop into adult ticks with no male intervention. They are a big threat to livestock & can transmit bacterial & viral disease to humans. And it is spreading rapidly.

That's a disgusting one.

We've been getting so many ticks these past few years. It's hard to go outside for any length of time without getting a few bites. I'm constantly pulling them off the dogs, even after they've been treated. There's got to be something they can do to stop these little buggers.
 
Just what we needed, a brand new and very prolific sort of blood sucker. I wonder what diseases this one spreads?

Anything it might pick up from feeding on an infected host. That's scary. And this tick is both aggressive & prolific. Read the part about the sheep in Flemington, NJ. I lived in that town for over 30 years.
 
Just what we needed, a brand new and very prolific sort of blood sucker.

No doubt. Trump is enough, we don't need anymore.
lol

I wonder what diseases this one spreads?

Hopefully at least not Lyme. It sounds like this tick as potential to spread everywhere, and currently Lyme is highly localized to the East.
 
No doubt. Trump is enough, we don't need anymore.
lol



Hopefully at least not Lyme. It sounds like this tick as potential to spread everywhere, and currently Lyme is highly localized to the East.

I'm wondering how one tick got from Japan to Central NJ to start this invasion. A traveler? In merchandise? Who can tell, but it's here now.
 
I'm wondering how one tick got from Japan to Central NJ to start this invasion. A traveler? In merchandise? Who can tell, but it's here now.

It's a bit surprising it hasn't happened earlier. Insects spread usually rather quickly once there's a fair amount of trade.
 
Female self spreading ticks that don't need to breed.... Have scientists been playing with genetics again??? I swear every one of these "new species discovered" seems just like some wierdo scientists letting their new creation onto the world.

From now on every time a new species is discovered I want you to think "Is this one genetic?" (as in science created)

https://www.glofish.com/about/glofish-science/


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GloFish

GloFish. The GloFish is a patented and trademarked brand of genetically engineered fluorescent fish. A variety of different GloFish are currently on the market. Zebrafish were the first GloFish available in pet stores, and are now sold in bright red, green, orange-yellow, blue, and purple fluorescent colors
 
There must be another insect or animal that feeds on them, that would be my route if looking to eliminate them.
 
Female self spreading ticks that don't need to breed.... Have scientists been playing with genetics again??? I swear every one of these "new species discovered" seems just like some wierdo scientists letting their new creation onto the world.

From now on every time a new species is discovered I want you to think "Is this one genetic?" (as in science created)

https://www.glofish.com/about/glofish-science/


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GloFish

Why would anyone develop a new sort of tick?
Let's instead make a chicken that lays zillions of eggs that hatch without need for a rooster. Make them so they grow quickly and taste good.
 
While researching anti-tick products for dogs I found this academic paper where 2 commercial anti-tick mixtures were tested on dogs: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00436-005-1455-y authored by a researcher at a Japan animal research facility & 2 researchers from the German pharma giant Bayer. The product that proved most effective is the mixture imidacloprid/permethrin. This is commercially available under a number of trade names but I would start here: TickEncounter Resource Center
 
Advantage: the more it spreads by cloning, the easier it is to target.

Disadvantage: rapid selection may result.
 
Why would anyone develop a new sort of tick?
Let's instead make a chicken that lays zillions of eggs that hatch without need for a rooster. Make them so they grow quickly and taste good.

A while back there was an effort made to develop a featherless chicken to eliminate the cost of plucking them. They almost succeeded but the result was a 'naked' chicken that required a near sterile and highly temperature controlled environment simply to have them live to slaughter age - the costs for providing that special environment far exceeded the costs of plucking normal chickens.
 
A while back there was an effort made to develop a featherless chicken to eliminate the cost of plucking them. They almost succeeded but the result was a 'naked' chicken that required a near sterile and highly temperature controlled environment simply to have them live to slaughter age - the costs for providing that special environment far exceeded the costs of plucking normal chickens.

Like the mutations nature creates, the ones humans create aren't always successful.

I saw chickens in the Amazon foothills of Bolivia, where it is always warm to hot, that had only a few feathers when they were small. When they grew up, they had no feathers on their necks at all. They really looked funny, but were adapted to the heat. People called them karakunka, with a hard K as used in Quechua.
 
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