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Scientists believe an undiscovered Lyme disease-like illness is being transmitted
by wood ticks in Montana, particularly in the Yellowstone River area from Livingston
downstream to Forsyth. The bulls-eye rash, fever, body aches, and lingering
exhaustion caused by the illness have stumped doctors for at least a decade,
said State Epidemiologist Todd Damrow. Local, state, and federal scientists
are now launching an effort to crack the mystery.
"We could have a new disease here, we just don't know right now,"
Damrow said. "We don't know how prevalent it is, how pervasive, or even
the nature of the illness. Those are questions we need to address."
The state receives a "handful" of reports each year of unexplainable
illnesses believed to be caused by a tick bite, Damrow said. The cases have
been clustered in the Yellowstone River drainage, but reports have also come
in from both Helena and Missoula. In each instance, Lyme disease has been ruled
out, as has Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
"As far as we can tell, these cases are fairly uncommon," Damrow
said. "We don't think it's a large epidemic, but you never know. We've
never followed it."
Antibiotics have been used successfully to treat recent cases reported to the
state. Damrow doesn't know whether the illness has ever caused any deaths. "We've
never looked. We have no way of knowing. Even if someone died from it, the cause
wouldn't show up on the death certificate. There's no test for it," he
said. "We also have no idea whether, like Lyme disease, there are serious
long-term consequences."
A Former Yellowstone County Commissioner developed symptoms of the illness
2 years ago, shortly after his wife spotted a tiny 8-legged tick on his lower
back. She plucked the tick off with a tweezers, sealed it in a pill bottle and
stashed the bottle in the freezer. A few days later, he began feeling like he
had the flu. The next morning, a red rash the size of a silver dollar surrounded
the bite. He immediately went to see his physician. Lyme disease was suspected
and the tick sent off to Helena for testing.
[Though an] active person, after being bitten, the patient struggled to find
the energy to do basic tasks. "It felt like someone pulled the plug and
I was 2 quarts low," he said. It was even worse not knowing what was wrong.
Although the microorganism that causes Lyme disease -- _Borrelia burgdorferi_
-- was named after a Montana scientist, Willy Burgdorfer, Montana is the only
state in the nation where a case of the disease has not been confirmed. The
species of tick [_Ixodes scapularis_ - Mod.LL] that carries Lyme disease also
has never been found in Montana.
State officials, including Damrow, were convinced the patient was suffering
from Lyme disease and had contracted it during a recent visit to California.
He insisted, however, he never did anything during his brief stay to put him
in contact with ticks. He maintained the tick came from his heavily wooded 54-acre
property south of Billings. Ticks are common in the area, he said. Tests came
back negative for Lyme disease. The tick was then shipped to the Vector-Borne
Disease Unit of the Centers for Disease Control in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
Meanwhile, the patient was put on antibiotics. His physician continued searching
for answers. This wasn't the first time she had a patient with unexplainable
Lyme disease-like symptoms, She said. "I think most of the physicians who
practice in Montana have seen cases like this."
5 months later, results came back from the CDC. Experimental DNA analysis was
used to search the gut contents of the tick, but nothing conclusive could be
found, according to the report. The tick was identified as a Rocky Mountain
wood tick [_Dermacentor andersoni_ - Mod.LL], a species common to Montana and
one that does not carry Lyme disease. The affliction could not be identified,
the report concluded.
Whatever it was, the disease no longer bothers the patient. "I've had
no ill-effects since they put me on medication," he said. His physician
hopes the new investigation will identify the source of the disease and, eventually,
lead to a test and a treatment. There have been too many unexplained cases to
shrug off, she said.
"I do think there's something to this," she said. "I'm glad
they're getting fired up over this."
Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton will help state and local officials study
suspected disease-bearing ticks. The federal lab was founded in 1928 to study
Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a tick-borne illness that killed hundreds of settlers
in Western Montana. In the early 1980s, the lab also identified the spiral-shaped
bacteria that causes Lyme disease. The lab's specialized equipment will play
a vital role in finding the culprit behind Montana's mysterious tick-borne illness.
Damrow said he "strongly suspects" a cousin of the Lyme disease-causing
bacteria has adapted to Montana's tick population.
"Unless we look, we'll never know," he said. "Who knows how
much health we could be protecting?"
[Byline: James Hagengruber]
Stephen Vantassel is a Certified
Wildlife Control Professional. He is a nationally known writer including
having been an assistant editor for Wildlife Control Technology magazine, author
of numerous ADC articles as well as The Wildlife Removal
Handbook rev.ed and the Wildlife Damage Inspection
Handbook rev. ed. Mr. Vantassel is also a vocal critic of the growing animal
rights movement. He has exposed the fallacies and deceptions of the animal
rights protest industry through debate, lecture and publication.
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3/8/03
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