As they learn more about the complex web of life, scientists are telling us that human health is inextricably linked with the survival of the diversity of plants, animals and insects that make up every ecosystem. A case in point is Lyme Disease, which is transmitted with the help of some fellow members of a local ecosystem, including mice and ticks. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History.
“This is a brand new area of inquiry, that maybe diversity of animals or plants or microbes might actually influence the probability that we are going to get sick in the first place.”
Richard Ostfeld is with the Institute for Ecosystems Studies in Millbrook, New York.
“With lyme disease the idea is basically that there is a single so-called receiver for the disease. There’s one animal, the white footed mouse, that is largely responsible for infecting ticks with lyme disease bacterium. So a tick can feed on a number of different hosts but it is only if they feed on a white footed mouse that they are liable to pick up the disease, and then become dangerous to us. Now obviously, what would be desirable would be to reduce the number of white footed mice, or essentially reduce the ratio of white footed mice to these other hosts in the environment, so that proportionately, more of these ticks would feed on something other than the white footed mouse. If you increase the diversity within this community of animals that ticks can feed on, you are essentially diluting the effect of the one species that’s able to pass on the lyme disease bacterium to the tick.”
We’ll hear more about lyme disease in future programs. Please visit our website at www.pulseplanet.com
Pulse of the Planet is presented by the American Museum of Natural History. Additional funding for this series has been provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.