WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:05.080 Virgin Media broadband is smooth. How smooth do you ask? Well, 2 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:08.640 Imagine you're a big old Walruss and rather than lumbering 3 00:00:08.679 --> 00:00:12.119 around a glacier avoiding polar bears, you're on a lake, 4 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:18.320 driving a speedboat three thousand kilos of mollusk, munching magnificence, 5 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:21.440 feeling the wind in your whiskers and the sun on 6 00:00:21.559 --> 00:00:26.559 your big blubbery face. That's the kind of smoothness you feel. 7 00:00:26.679 --> 00:00:32.079 With ninety nine point nine percent broadband reliability available nationwide 8 00:00:32.719 --> 00:00:36.280 Virgin Media, It's playtime subject to locational availability. 9 00:00:36.320 --> 00:00:38.799 Teasincy s apply for broad bund reliability. See Virgin Media 10 00:00:38.840 --> 00:00:42.000 dot I forward slashproof Get value. 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Every Little Helps available in most stores, 19 00:01:08.120 --> 00:01:09.120 prices very in express. 20 00:01:10.680 --> 00:01:14.400 Oh hey, sold uncle Dad, who's not too proud to 21 00:01:14.439 --> 00:01:16.560 shove a finger in each of his ears. 22 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:18.840 When a fire truck goes by. It's too loud. 23 00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:22.120 Ali ward back with another episode of Ologies. 24 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:23.480 All right, diseases. 25 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:27.159 Nobody likes them, not even vectors probably, But isn't it 26 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:30.799 nice to be united in a common dislike of them? 27 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:35.040 So let's clamber down into a big, juicy vat of 28 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:40.359 tickborn illness, shall we? So recovered Acarology a few weeks ago, 29 00:01:40.359 --> 00:01:42.840 and I promise that I would hustle to get you 30 00:01:42.959 --> 00:01:46.760 a follow up on tick spit souvenirs that they can 31 00:01:46.799 --> 00:01:49.239 give you. And this week is the week. Did you 32 00:01:49.439 --> 00:01:52.560 come out of acroology liking ticks just a little bit? 33 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:56.280 Because I didn't. I still hate them very deeply, and 34 00:01:56.319 --> 00:02:00.239 they've silently crawled to the very very tippy top my 35 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:03.680 shit list. So let's talk about what they can do 36 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:06.760 to us. But first let me talk about you and 37 00:02:06.879 --> 00:02:09.560 just how much I like you. So thanks to everyone 38 00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:12.360 who is supporting the show via Patreon. I could not 39 00:02:12.479 --> 00:02:16.240 make Ologies without you, And thank you to everyone getting ologies, 40 00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:19.800 merch at ologiesmerch dot com. Also, I put out some 41 00:02:19.919 --> 00:02:22.919 social media posts this week that if you got merch 42 00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:25.840 in the last few weeks and it seems oddly late, 43 00:02:26.360 --> 00:02:28.800 if you didn't hear the secrets at the end of 44 00:02:28.840 --> 00:02:31.759 the last few episodes, I had my wallets stolen in 45 00:02:31.879 --> 00:02:36.000 a walmart last month. All of my cards were canceled, 46 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:39.240 so there was a delay with the merch site. Anyway, 47 00:02:39.400 --> 00:02:42.199 everything is fine out there's still a couple ordershipping out. 48 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:44.960 I'm so sorry if yours was late. I care so 49 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:47.319 much and I'm so sorry. Thank you also to everyone 50 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:50.879 who is subscribing and rating, most of all reviewing the 51 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:54.080 podcast so that I can lurk and read your nice 52 00:02:54.120 --> 00:02:57.000 words and I just pick a fresh fun one each week, 53 00:02:57.120 --> 00:03:00.240 such as this one by Maria, who says ology since 54 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:02.759 taught me to look at trees and watch what answer 55 00:03:02.840 --> 00:03:05.000 up to I spend so much of my time appreciating 56 00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:07.800 the smallest of things, which add up to several hours 57 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:11.800 of my week being filled with both peace and excitement. Anyway, 58 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:15.560 let's get the hell right into this so disease ecology. Ecology, 59 00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:18.759 as we know from the last three episodes, means dwelling 60 00:03:19.159 --> 00:03:21.800 that's the root of it or where something lives. 61 00:03:22.280 --> 00:03:25.319 Now. Disease is all French for. 62 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:29.639 A lack of ease, so simple disease. So a disease 63 00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:33.919 ecologist is like, okay, shit, that bums us out. 64 00:03:34.039 --> 00:03:36.879 Where are you? Where are you living now? 65 00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:40.800 This is a great companion episode to the acarology on 66 00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:44.240 all about ticks, how ticks work, what they want from us, 67 00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:46.680 how stabby are their mouths? How do you get them 68 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:49.159 out of you? So if you'd like to not get 69 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:52.240 a tick born illness, start there for prevention. 70 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:53.680 That is the base. 71 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:56.479 That's the one oh one amazing episode with doctor Nita 72 00:03:56.599 --> 00:03:59.159 Pardonani Connolly who has a lab in Connecticut. 73 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:01.479 They know a little aboutics. Okay. 74 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:05.240 Also two quick corrections before you douse yourself or your 75 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:08.599 life with permetherns, don't use this stuff directly on the 76 00:04:08.599 --> 00:04:11.360 skin unless it's been prescribed by doc. Also, check with 77 00:04:11.400 --> 00:04:14.800 a vet because liquid permetherne can be toxic to kitties, 78 00:04:15.039 --> 00:04:18.040 so ask first about that. Now, if you're like is 79 00:04:18.120 --> 00:04:21.560 permethrin the name of a dragon and a fantasy franchise, 80 00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:24.920 no again, listen to Acroology. You'll get it. 81 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:28.319 Okay. So this disease ecologist is one of the best. 82 00:04:28.680 --> 00:04:32.680 She studies the whereabouts and effects of baddies like lime 83 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:36.720 disease and babiosis and other things that like to live 84 00:04:36.759 --> 00:04:40.079 in your body without permission. So she's an assistant professor 85 00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:43.720 at San Francisco State University. She is a research scientist 86 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:46.920 for the Bay Area Lime Disease Foundation and a member 87 00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:49.800 of the California Department of Public Health TICK Working Group. 88 00:04:50.040 --> 00:04:53.720 She runs her own lab at SFSU dedicated to research 89 00:04:53.800 --> 00:04:56.879 on these very topics. And she hopped in a sound 90 00:04:56.920 --> 00:05:00.079 booth at eight two six Valencia in San Francisco, and 91 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:03.480 we chatted about how many times she's been tick bit, 92 00:05:04.040 --> 00:05:06.800 what to do if you find one that's been on you, 93 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:11.920 how animal populations carry lime and other diseases, why possums 94 00:05:11.959 --> 00:05:15.680 and western fence lizards are our friends, and what scares her. 95 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:17.560 The most about ticks. 96 00:05:17.959 --> 00:05:20.600 So button up your cosmic lab coats and take a 97 00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:43.920 micro gander at disease ecologist doctor Andrea's way. And so 98 00:05:44.040 --> 00:05:46.839 tell me what you study, Tell me what your work entails. 99 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:47.759 This is so exciting. 100 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:48.480 Yeah. 101 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:51.560 So my work is really, if I were to summarize it, 102 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:56.680 it's trying to understand diseases and how they're transmitted and 103 00:05:56.720 --> 00:06:01.000 how ecological factors, environment and vertebrate can unities sort of 104 00:06:01.079 --> 00:06:05.759 natural communities might influence how they're transmitted and where they are. 105 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:08.720 And many of the diseases that I work on happen 106 00:06:08.800 --> 00:06:11.879 to be zoonautic, so that means that they're pathogens that 107 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:15.519 are naturally sort of maintained in wildlife and in wild 108 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:19.360 situations and can also cross over to humans and cause 109 00:06:19.399 --> 00:06:23.240 disease in humans. And so zoonotic diseases are a huge 110 00:06:23.319 --> 00:06:26.720 part of, you know, the burden of infectious diseases that 111 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:29.800 we see in the world, and many of the diseases 112 00:06:29.800 --> 00:06:31.920 that we're facing that are that seem to be new 113 00:06:32.120 --> 00:06:35.439 or seem to be emerging actually come from wildlife reservoirs. 114 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:38.000 A lot of the diseases that we're seeing that are 115 00:06:38.040 --> 00:06:41.600 tick born, those have existed in populations, in animals and 116 00:06:41.639 --> 00:06:43.199 wildlife well before. 117 00:06:43.480 --> 00:06:46.639 That's right, Yeah, I mean nothing is really new in 118 00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:50.240 the sense of you know, spontaneously generating. We're starting to 119 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:52.959 see some of those with antibiotic resistance and sort of 120 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:55.720 new genetic strains, but many of the pathogens that we 121 00:06:55.759 --> 00:06:59.079 talk about as being new are they're really just new 122 00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:04.000 to us or in terms of causing harm in human populations. 123 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:07.639 Now, tell me a little bit about when you decided 124 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:10.480 to be a biologist, or when you were like, this 125 00:07:10.680 --> 00:07:11.959 is my deal, this is what I'm gonna do. 126 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:14.519 Yeah, you know, I've been sort of reflecting on that 127 00:07:14.639 --> 00:07:16.959 a little bit recently after listening to a few of 128 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:19.639 your shows. And I think it happened pretty early on. 129 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:22.600 I've always really been interested in science. I remember getting 130 00:07:22.600 --> 00:07:26.000 my first microscope when I was eleven or so, and 131 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:29.519 I wanted to put everything under the microscope, and I 132 00:07:29.560 --> 00:07:32.040 totally got shamed once because someone caught me putting a 133 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:34.439 scab under the microscope. I really wanted to see what 134 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:36.959 that scab looked like. And you know, then after that, 135 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:39.160 I started doing it more in secret with the things 136 00:07:39.240 --> 00:07:42.279 I looked at under the microscope. And it wasn't until 137 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:46.639 I got to college that I took a class and 138 00:07:46.759 --> 00:07:50.759 I realized that I really was interested in understanding animal 139 00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:55.279 populations and how understanding their populations has all of this 140 00:07:55.480 --> 00:08:00.439 relevance or human well being and you know, are sort 141 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:02.959 of way of life. And so I began to be 142 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:07.480 interested in field ecology, and so I started taking classes 143 00:08:07.560 --> 00:08:09.639 that took me into the field all over the place, 144 00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:14.759 and I started learning how to do things like trap mammals. 145 00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:16.360 And that was. 146 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:19.639 Really, I think maybe the moment when I realized that 147 00:08:19.720 --> 00:08:22.439 this is really cool. You know, I could go out 148 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:25.759 there and set out a little trap, bait it with 149 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:28.959 oats and peanut butter, and then come back the next 150 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:32.639 morning and they would be like a little surprise present inside, 151 00:08:32.679 --> 00:08:34.360 and you know, you didn't know what it was until 152 00:08:34.399 --> 00:08:35.240 you opened it up. 153 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:37.000 Hi, fancy meeting you here. 154 00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:40.159 And so I'd got a lot of experience working with 155 00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:44.039 small mammal population genetics, and because I knew how to 156 00:08:44.039 --> 00:08:48.080 trap small mammals, I somehow learned about a field assistant 157 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:51.000 position in upstate New York on a lime disease project, 158 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:54.799 and so that's how I got into studying lime disease. 159 00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:57.320 So I really got into it for the cute, fuzzy mammals, 160 00:08:57.360 --> 00:08:59.919 and then I stayed for the tick boorne diseases. 161 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:04.919 That's a common marketing ploy, you know, Yeah, stay for 162 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:09.120 the disease. So Andrea got her bachelor's and PhD in 163 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:13.480 integrative biology at UC Berkeley, and her doctoral dissertation was 164 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:16.960 on the ecology of lime disease. But I just had 165 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:19.480 a lingering question. I have a question, did you ever 166 00:09:19.559 --> 00:09:21.600 eat any of the oats and peanut butter balls because 167 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:22.679 it sounds really good, you. 168 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:26.440 Know, I never did, even though it smelled good. 169 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:29.360 You know, we mix it in these big vats, you know, 170 00:09:29.840 --> 00:09:31.240 and it's just not appetizing. 171 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:33.519 Although, yeah, although you know, my. 172 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:36.440 Students do make jokes about how, you know, as starving 173 00:09:36.440 --> 00:09:39.200 grad students, they can dip into it if they really 174 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:39.600 needed to. 175 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:42.320 Sounds good, sounds a cookie, though, But I guess in 176 00:09:42.360 --> 00:09:45.840 a five gallon home depot bucket mixed with like a stick, 177 00:09:45.879 --> 00:09:46.799 it's a little different. 178 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:48.080 Yeah, exactly. 179 00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:50.039 It's more it's you know, it's really about setting the 180 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:51.039 mood for eating. 181 00:09:51.080 --> 00:09:54.080 And yeah, it's not it. I'm really not very. 182 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:57.080 And so you were working in upstate New York, And 183 00:09:57.120 --> 00:09:59.799 now how long ago was this and how has the 184 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:02.080 prevalence of lime disease or the way we study it 185 00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:03.000 change since then? 186 00:10:03.519 --> 00:10:05.840 Well, so this is about twenty years ago that I 187 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:09.480 got this first experience working with lime disease. And I'd 188 00:10:09.480 --> 00:10:11.679 say that a lot of what we do, in terms 189 00:10:11.720 --> 00:10:15.200 of collecting the data in the field, a lot of 190 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:18.320 that has sort of stayed the same. You know, we 191 00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:21.240 go out and we trap these mammals. We look at 192 00:10:21.679 --> 00:10:24.519 how many ticks they have on them. We can test 193 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:28.120 their tissues for infection prevalence. I would say in the 194 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:30.440 lab is where things have changed, where we have much 195 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:34.480 more sensitive techniques, much more specific techniques to detect pathogens. 196 00:10:34.519 --> 00:10:37.039 So for a long time, what we do is we 197 00:10:37.039 --> 00:10:40.200 would look for the bacteria under dark field microscopy. You 198 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:42.039 could see them swimming around. 199 00:10:42.279 --> 00:10:44.559 So dark field my cross b side note is when 200 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:47.440 the background of the object you're looking at is dark. 201 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:49.759 So the background is dark, it's good for spying on 202 00:10:49.879 --> 00:10:53.519 things that you can't stain or that are transparent and 203 00:10:53.559 --> 00:10:54.799 don't absorb a lot of light. 204 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:55.879 So it's kind of like. 205 00:10:56.080 --> 00:10:59.879 Photographing your evening look if you were a limespier keet 206 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:01.799 and no offense, but I would hate you. 207 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:03.919 And so they're pretty distinctive. You know that you have 208 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:07.159 a spirakeat, but we didn't necessarily know what species of 209 00:11:07.159 --> 00:11:10.000 a spire heat we had, and so now we're realizing 210 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:13.200 that there's all of this diversity by using much more 211 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:16.440 specific sequencing methods, and now of course we can look 212 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:20.159 for not only the spire heat, but other microbes and 213 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:24.440 other bacteria viruses that are also coexisting in. 214 00:11:24.440 --> 00:11:25.639 This tick milieu. 215 00:11:26.840 --> 00:11:29.080 So we can kind of look at that whole community 216 00:11:29.120 --> 00:11:30.120 within a tick as well. 217 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:33.919 Okay, so let's direct our gaze and will zoom in 218 00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:37.159 online under the scope. And when you talk about lime 219 00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:39.639 disease and being a spira keyt, can you kind of 220 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:42.360 explain what that looks like? And if you're like looking 221 00:11:42.399 --> 00:11:45.120 at a drop of blood, is it hard to come 222 00:11:45.159 --> 00:11:47.240 by the spira keet or is it just allows you 223 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:49.320 with spira keats? Is it just a spira keet party 224 00:11:49.320 --> 00:11:49.600 in there. 225 00:11:49.759 --> 00:11:51.080 Yeah? No, that's a really good question. 226 00:11:51.120 --> 00:11:53.080 So it turns out there are a lot of different 227 00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:55.600 spire heats and some of them hang out in the blood. 228 00:11:56.200 --> 00:12:00.720 These tend to be relapsing fever brilliant and these are 229 00:12:00.759 --> 00:12:04.279 things like Brillia mimotoi or early A correesi. These are 230 00:12:04.360 --> 00:12:06.919 different types of spirokeuse, the one that causes lime disease 231 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:09.080 and related ones. They actually don't hang out in the 232 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:10.120 blood for very long. 233 00:12:10.840 --> 00:12:14.559 What really, This totally surprised me, and to be honest, 234 00:12:15.279 --> 00:12:16.320 ticked me off a little bit. 235 00:12:17.080 --> 00:12:17.559 I said it. 236 00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:20.559 They passed through the blood really briefly. Actually detecting them 237 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:23.080 in blood is not the best way to pick up 238 00:12:23.480 --> 00:12:27.480 lime disease infection prevalence, so for that we actually go 239 00:12:27.559 --> 00:12:29.600 for tissue. So we'll try to get some ear tissue, 240 00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:32.360 or if you have a whole animal, you can go 241 00:12:32.440 --> 00:12:37.080 for some other organ. That's where the burlier Bergorpheri, the 242 00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:40.240 pathogen that causes lime disease, that's where it will migrate 243 00:12:40.279 --> 00:12:42.519 to eventually and sort of hang out. And the blood 244 00:12:42.639 --> 00:12:44.879 it depends on what kind of brillier you're talking about, 245 00:12:45.320 --> 00:12:47.360 but if you do see one, what it looks like 246 00:12:47.480 --> 00:12:49.720 is just a little squiggle and they kind of vibrate 247 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:51.080 like vibraingly. 248 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:51.360 You know. 249 00:12:51.399 --> 00:12:53.519 One nice thing about the semester being over is I 250 00:12:53.519 --> 00:12:55.840 actually get back into the field and back into the lab, 251 00:12:55.879 --> 00:12:58.919 and so earlier this week I was culturing some bacteria 252 00:12:58.919 --> 00:13:00.720 and it was so nice to sort of see again 253 00:13:00.840 --> 00:13:05.159 under the microscope. I still love using looking under microscopes, 254 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:07.600 and so that was really fun. And when you see 255 00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:11.279 the spire keats, they kind of vibrate in the culture 256 00:13:11.320 --> 00:13:13.120 and the liquid culture that we grow. 257 00:13:12.919 --> 00:13:13.279 Them in. 258 00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:20.360 When they kind of look I was putting a talk 259 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:23.600 together recently and I made a little pun about a 260 00:13:23.639 --> 00:13:27.080 twist of lime, which I was very pleased with and 261 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:29.440 then I realized it kind of does they do almost 262 00:13:29.480 --> 00:13:31.159 look like a twist of lime, you know when it 263 00:13:31.240 --> 00:13:33.879 kind of curls around, So that's sort of what they 264 00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:36.279 look like, and they and they move so they can 265 00:13:36.799 --> 00:13:40.080 they use that sort of their whole body to sort 266 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:42.679 of corkscrew through things, and that's how they can tunnel 267 00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:43.639 into tissues. 268 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:47.080 Oh, that's such a brilliant and wonderful visual pun You 269 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:50.480 get like twenty dad joke points for that. That's amazing. Yes, 270 00:13:51.600 --> 00:13:55.360 And before we dive more into lime, can you give 271 00:13:55.399 --> 00:13:59.799 me kind of just an overview of some tickborn diseases 272 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:02.759 that people might be a little bit worried about. I know, 273 00:14:03.080 --> 00:14:06.279 in the tic episode, I've focused a lot on us, 274 00:14:06.320 --> 00:14:09.000 but I've heard from Australian friends that there's like a 275 00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:12.279 tick paralysis, Like, what are some of the baddies out there? 276 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:14.639 Well, I mean, certainly lime disease is the most prevalent 277 00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:17.279 one that most people will know about. There are actually 278 00:14:17.399 --> 00:14:21.480 several different species of Brillia that cause lime disease. They're 279 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:23.919 in the United States and North America. We have Brillia 280 00:14:23.960 --> 00:14:24.639 burgdor frye. 281 00:14:24.679 --> 00:14:25.080 In Europe. 282 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:28.639 There are other species like Brillia fzellii and Brillia garni. 283 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:32.559 They all cause what's called collectively lime burrilliosis. 284 00:14:32.919 --> 00:14:36.519 So there can be different species of Berrillia that are 285 00:14:36.679 --> 00:14:39.840 transmitted by ticks and cause lime disease. Now, of the 286 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.600 fifty two identified species of Barillia, twenty one are known 287 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:48.559 to cause lime disease or burrelliosis. Now, if you look 288 00:14:48.679 --> 00:14:52.399 up a lime spirakeat they're kind of like curly little 289 00:14:52.440 --> 00:14:57.279 worm looking bacteria or bits of those little paper streamers 290 00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:00.799 that spring forth from a New Year popper. You know, 291 00:15:00.840 --> 00:15:04.519 those things are pop those but they're alive and they 292 00:15:04.559 --> 00:15:07.399 live in your body. Okay, so a twist of lime 293 00:15:07.639 --> 00:15:11.519 is brilliant. Oh, and that Australian paralysis tick. They tend 294 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:14.639 to be on the eastern coastline of Australia. And it's 295 00:15:14.639 --> 00:15:19.159 not a pathogen that does the paralysizing, but a neurotoxin 296 00:15:19.320 --> 00:15:22.919 in their saliva. It can cause paralysis and respiratory failure, 297 00:15:23.159 --> 00:15:27.320 even death. So what is our motto, check your crevice 298 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:30.279 is now, let's zoom out a little bit and back 299 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:31.480 to some other diseases. 300 00:15:31.960 --> 00:15:34.639 And then in terms of other pathogens, I mean, I 301 00:15:34.679 --> 00:15:37.440 think one of the scariest ones to me is poasen virus, 302 00:15:37.440 --> 00:15:41.000 which is a virus obviously, but what's really scary about 303 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:44.799 it is it can get transmitted really quickly after a 304 00:15:44.840 --> 00:15:50.360 tick attaches, and so within minutes, maybe fifteen minutes or so, 305 00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:53.759 it can be transmitted and it's fatal. And so that 306 00:15:53.759 --> 00:15:55.639 that sort of cushion of time that we have with 307 00:15:55.799 --> 00:15:58.559 detecting a tick for lime disease prevention, we don't actually 308 00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:00.000 have that for poalsen virus. 309 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:00.759 That sucks. 310 00:16:00.919 --> 00:16:02.240 Luckily, it's not very common. 311 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:03.279 What's the range of that. 312 00:16:03.639 --> 00:16:07.600 It's mostly in the Northeast and a little bit in 313 00:16:07.639 --> 00:16:11.360 the Midwest, I believe, but it's pretty limited in distribution. 314 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:15.879 Okay, So I looked into Poasin disease, named for an 315 00:16:15.960 --> 00:16:19.720 unfortunate city in Ontario, Canada, the tourist board of which 316 00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:24.120 is probably not stoked because this viral disease not a 317 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:27.799 good one. So some folks won't have any signs, but 318 00:16:28.080 --> 00:16:34.639 if you're infected, symptoms could include fever, headache, vomiting, weakness, confusion, 319 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:41.039 a loss of coordination, trouble speaking, memory loss, and encephalitis, 320 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:44.600 which is swelling of the brain. Just the last month, 321 00:16:44.799 --> 00:16:48.039 two folks from Hampton, New Jersey, have come down with 322 00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:51.399 poasan virus from a tick bite, and one eighty year 323 00:16:51.399 --> 00:16:53.120 old armand des A Moreau. 324 00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:54.080 Did not survive. 325 00:16:54.519 --> 00:16:56.919 So only thirty three people were diagnosed with it in 326 00:16:57.000 --> 00:16:59.120 the US last year, so it's very rare, but it 327 00:16:59.159 --> 00:17:03.399 can be fatal, so check yourself before it tick recks yourself. 328 00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:07.920 And then other diseases that are emerging are babiziosis, which 329 00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:11.640 is caused by a parasite. Actually it's a protozoin parasite 330 00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:14.960 that's it's ap complex and so it's related to malaria. 331 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:17.759 So ticks can harbor all these different kinds of pathogens, 332 00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:21.680 really diverse and varied. And babeziosis can be caused by 333 00:17:21.880 --> 00:17:25.759 Bibesia microdi in the East Coast, and more recently we've 334 00:17:25.799 --> 00:17:28.160 been doing some work on bibiziosis in the West Coast 335 00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:30.000 and it turns out that it's caused by a different 336 00:17:30.359 --> 00:17:33.559 parasite that's called Bibezia duncan i that has a really 337 00:17:33.559 --> 00:17:38.680 different life history, different tick associations, different seasonality. 338 00:17:39.079 --> 00:17:43.319 Okay, Bibizia is not the same as Burrellia, now, I know, 339 00:17:43.880 --> 00:17:47.960 I know. They sound like names of twin Ukrainian princesses. 340 00:17:48.119 --> 00:17:53.400 But Bizia is around little protozoan parasite. It lives in 341 00:17:53.480 --> 00:17:56.559 red blood cells and it gives you symptoms like malaria. 342 00:17:56.720 --> 00:18:00.519 Sometimes anti malarial drugs are used in treatment. Now, our 343 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:04.359 other enemy, Burrellia, is that twist of lime spiro keet 344 00:18:04.519 --> 00:18:08.640 so Bibisia round lives in the blood cells Burrellia spiral 345 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:11.119 and it goes honky tonkin. It could be anywhere in 346 00:18:11.119 --> 00:18:13.400 your body. It's hard to find. So guess what They 347 00:18:13.440 --> 00:18:15.279 both suck And they could both come from a tick. 348 00:18:15.480 --> 00:18:18.119 So thanks you tiny thirsty little assholes. 349 00:18:18.279 --> 00:18:19.960 And so one of the things in my work that 350 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.359 I'm really interested in exploring is how these ecological changes 351 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:28.039 can lead to differences and how a pathogen is transmitted 352 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:31.799 and what does that mean for you know, disease control 353 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:36.279 and sort of public health awareness, because these different ticks 354 00:18:36.359 --> 00:18:40.799 have different affinities for biting different people and then they can, 355 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:43.799 you know, affect different populations. So you need to know 356 00:18:44.039 --> 00:18:45.880 what kind of what the vector is. You need to 357 00:18:45.920 --> 00:18:50.000 know where it's found. So there's so many different tick species. 358 00:18:50.119 --> 00:18:52.920 One tick species might transmit one pathogen and another one 359 00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:55.559 might transmit another one. But a lot of people don't 360 00:18:55.599 --> 00:18:58.440 really recognize that there are multiple tick species and that 361 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:02.200 they're a very specific hosts associations, and so you know, 362 00:19:02.480 --> 00:19:05.039 sort of getting the word out on that is, you know, 363 00:19:05.079 --> 00:19:06.519 one of my research goals. 364 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:10.440 I'm sure there are people wondering, like who's it more risk? 365 00:19:10.519 --> 00:19:13.640 Do they really prefer particular people? Like if you have 366 00:19:13.720 --> 00:19:16.279 more sugar in your blood, or you're more caffeinated, or 367 00:19:16.920 --> 00:19:20.759 redheads for example, fake redhead, are they at greater. 368 00:19:20.680 --> 00:19:23.119 Risk for instance? 369 00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:23.559 Yeah? 370 00:19:25.240 --> 00:19:31.319 Yeah, I mean there are definitely personal differences between people, 371 00:19:32.039 --> 00:19:34.880 so I personally do not I don't seem to be 372 00:19:35.240 --> 00:19:39.000 very light by ticks in terms of a blood meal. 373 00:19:39.240 --> 00:19:43.359 I've had very few ticks attached to me. And you know, 374 00:19:43.400 --> 00:19:46.960 despite working in tick board diseases for over twenty years, 375 00:19:47.119 --> 00:19:49.880 I think I've maybe have had two ticks attached to me. 376 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:52.839 Wow, two only too in that whole time. 377 00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:55.400 And last year we actually tried to I tried to 378 00:19:55.440 --> 00:19:58.920 get a tick to bite me for a video segment 379 00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:03.279 that this other program was putting on, and it would 380 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:06.839 it refused to bite me. It actually I saw it 381 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:11.200 as it rolled itself off of my arm. So, you know, 382 00:20:11.240 --> 00:20:13.400 I think maybe a common theme is that people that 383 00:20:13.480 --> 00:20:16.519 work on these things are not necessarily the most prone 384 00:20:16.519 --> 00:20:18.440 to getting lots of tick bites, maybe just out of 385 00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:23.720 selection or you know, you know, these sorts of occupational hazards. 386 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:26.799 But so I know that I am not preferred by ticks, 387 00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:28.960 and I know that you know, other people, if they 388 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:30.720 come into the field with me for an. 389 00:20:30.680 --> 00:20:32.200 Hour, they will get a tick bite. 390 00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:34.599 So there are definitely those preferences, but I don't know 391 00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:38.559 if anyone is really really understands what's driving that, what 392 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:42.000 are the mechanisms behind that. Ticks also have preferences for 393 00:20:42.559 --> 00:20:45.400 different host species as well in the field. So we 394 00:20:45.519 --> 00:20:49.240 know that like in California we have this amazing tick 395 00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:51.200 host that's a western fence lizard. 396 00:20:51.720 --> 00:20:53.480 Those are the blue bellied lizards. 397 00:20:53.119 --> 00:20:56.799 That you often see, bright blue bellies, really ubiquitous in California. 398 00:20:56.960 --> 00:20:59.119 Western black leg a tick that we have here, really 399 00:20:59.160 --> 00:20:59.960 loves that host. 400 00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:02.880 Oh okay, I hate how cute This next part is 401 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:06.200