A natural, alternative insect repellent to DEET

... A Novel Sesquiterpene Repellent of ticks and Mosquitoes." The authors found that ... bioassays. Furthermore, it repelled blacklegged ticks and lone star ticks as effectively as DEET. Since ...

Researchers to study lyme-like illness in Texas

... cause Lyme disease (called Borrelia burgdorferi) in patients, animals or ticks from Texas or nearby states. In this project, Lin and Norris will ... media and conditions in an attempt to identify and culture Borrelia from ticks and patients' tissues. These approaches are aimed at identifying the ...

EPA funds ground-breaking Lyme disease research

... hosts for ticks: white-footed mice, eastern chipmunks, and gray squirrels. ticks that feed on mice and chipmunks frequently get infected with Lyme ... high biodiversity communities will be characterized by a lower rate of ticks infected with B. burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. In ...

Tiny details in three dimensions

... They are borne by ticks and can cause acute and chronic symptoms in joints, muscles and the nervous system the bacteria that cause Lyme borreliosis, which 80,000 people in ...

Common soil mineral degrades the nearly indestructible prion

... are likely critical links in the chain of infection because the agent does not appear to depend on vectors intermediate organisms like mosquitoes or ticks to spread from animal to animal. That the birnessite family of minerals possessed the capacity to degrade prions was a surprise, Pedersen says. ...

New CU-Boulder study shows diversity decreases chances of parasitic disease

... that are susceptible to parasitic infections, said Johnson. Other research has shown that a decrease in diversity in mammal host species for ticks carrying Lyme disease increases the risk of Lyme disease in humans, Johnson said. Similar relationships between wildlife diversity and disease ...

Francisella tularensis: Stopping a biological weapon

... Outbreaks in humans often happen at the same time as outbreaks in these animals. The disease is probably transmitted by insects like mosquitoes, ticks and deer flies. People can also become infected by contact with contaminated food or water and by breathing in particles containing the bacteria. ...

Scientists reveal the lifestyle evolution of wild marine bacteria

... gene accumulates random mutations over timewas well-suited to the task. The trick in many ways is choosing a gene that has a molecular clock that ticks at the right rate, said Polz. In particular, if its too slow, you might lump organisms into a single group that you would actually like to ...

A model photochemical compass for bird navigation

... ecologically as a food source for other animals. They also transport plankton, materials involved in plant reproduction and hitchhikers such as ticks and lice, which can carry micro-organisms harmful to human health. About 50 animal species, ranging from birds and mammals to reptiles and ...

Toll of climate change on world food supply could be worse than thought

... out of most projections. One of the new PNAS studies, Crop and Pasture Response to Climate Change, says that more recent modeling suggests cattle ticks and bluetongue (a viral disease of sheep and cattle) will move outward from the tropics to areas such as southern Australia. Other new models suggest ...

Infectious disease expert warns of spread of Rocky Mountain spotted fever

... confirmed cases that could be traced back to ticks carried into to the state on feral dogs, an ... source of infection, they found fever-infected ticks in all patients' yards. ticks were found in the cracks of stucco walls on ...

Researchers identify protein crucial for survival of Lyme-disease bacterium

... decrease." In the study, each time infected ticks fed, bacteria levels within them dropped until ... as to how the organism has evolved to survive in ticks and why it has chosen a tick environment to be ... the later stages of tick feeding ?allowing the ticks to feed on mice, waiting a couple of months for ...

A new view on Lyme disease: Rodents hold the key to annual risk

... to estimate how each of the 11 variables (including multiple climate and deer indexes) contributed to yearly variations in the density of infected ticks and thus risk of human exposure. While none of the climate variables influenced nymphal infection prevalence, higher temperatures in the ...

Genomics-based vaccine could prevent deadly cattle disease

... used the genome sequence of the parasite responsible for East Coast fever. A tick-borne parasite, Theileria parva , causes the disease. When ticks infected with T. parva bite cattle, they transmit the parasite, launching the disease that typically kills cattle within a month. In July, 2005, ...

Ticks, flukes, and genomics: Emerging pathogens revealed

... star of science. This emerging disease has an awkward name, vague flu-like symptoms, and a nasty habit of being caused by bacteria that live inside ticks and flatworms. But in the current issue of the journal Public Library of Science Genetics (PLoS Genetics), scientists put ehrlichiosis under the ...

What Makes The Brain Tick, Tick, Tick: Researchers Gaining New Insights Into Brain's Internal Clock

... an intricate interval timing machine, in which individual structures busy with their own neural tasks, generate resonances that integrate to become ticks of the neural clock. Meck, Buhusi and their clockwork colleagues are using an array of experimental techniques to try to identify this "baton" ...

Scientists reveal how disease bacterium survives inside immune system cell

... how it affects blood cells -- and neutrophils in particular. "Few people know about this pathogen, but it is important because it is transmitted by ticks and causes disease in both animals and humans," Dr. Borjesson says. Neutrophils, which make up about 60 percent of all white blood cells, are the ...