"A professor at East Stroudsburg University and an Allentown-area entrepreneur have joined forces to bring to the masses a way to have ticks tested to find out for sure if an individual critter is carrying Lyme disease. And they say their test is foolproof."
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/826109_Testing-ticks-for-Lyme-disease.html
Testing ticks for Lyme disease
Sunday News
Mar 17, 2013 00:14
By P.J. REILLY
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
Here in Lancaster County, the odds are pretty good you know someone who has had Lyme disease.
Or maybe you've had it yourself.
Or maybe a pet did.
Pennsylvania is at ground zero for this tick-borne affliction that can cause problems ranging from muscle aches to heart failure.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documented 4,739 cases in the state in 2011 — the most in the nation.
Lyme disease can be cured with antibiotics.
But to kill it, your doctor or veterinarian has to prop erly diagnose it, or at least realize you've been exposed.
The sooner it's identified, the fewer problems Lyme causes and the easier it is to kill.
"Lyme disease can have some serious complications if it's left undiagnosed," said Joe Irwin, a physician with Trout Run Family Practice in Ephrata.
The problem is, Lyme disease can be in your system — or your pet's — for a while before symptoms develop that would drive you to seek medical help.
And even if symptoms appear quickly, you and your doctor might not immediately think "Lyme disease," because the symptoms — lethargy, fever, joint pain — can mirror many other ailments.
A professor at East Stroudsburg University and an Allentown-area entrepreneur have joined forces to bring to the masses a way to have ticks tested to find out for sure if an individual critter is carrying Lyme disease.
And they say their test is foolproof.
"We look for the presence of the spirochete — the bacterium that causes the disease," said Jane Huffman, director of ESU's Northeast Wildlife DNA Laboratory. "If it's there, then that tick is positive for Lyme."
Or maybe you've had it yourself.
Or maybe a pet did.
Pennsylvania is at ground zero for this tick-borne affliction that can cause problems ranging from muscle aches to heart failure.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documented 4,739 cases in the state in 2011 — the most in the nation.
Lyme disease can be cured with antibiotics.
But to kill it, your doctor or veterinarian has to prop erly diagnose it, or at least realize you've been exposed.
The sooner it's identified, the fewer problems Lyme causes and the easier it is to kill.
"Lyme disease can have some serious complications if it's left undiagnosed," said Joe Irwin, a physician with Trout Run Family Practice in Ephrata.
The problem is, Lyme disease can be in your system — or your pet's — for a while before symptoms develop that would drive you to seek medical help.
And even if symptoms appear quickly, you and your doctor might not immediately think "Lyme disease," because the symptoms — lethargy, fever, joint pain — can mirror many other ailments.
A professor at East Stroudsburg University and an Allentown-area entrepreneur have joined forces to bring to the masses a way to have ticks tested to find out for sure if an individual critter is carrying Lyme disease.
And they say their test is foolproof.
"We look for the presence of the spirochete — the bacterium that causes the disease," said Jane Huffman, director of ESU's Northeast Wildlife DNA Laboratory. "If it's there, then that tick is positive for Lyme."
• • •
Here in the northeast U.S., Lyme disease is carried by the black-legged tick, also called the deer tick.
It's a teeny-tiny little bugger — much smaller than the wood tick most people find on themselves or their pets after a day in the outdoors.
The bacterium that causes Lyme lives inside the tick, and can be transmitted when the tick bites a host.
Showing up recently on retail stores throughout the northeast, Lyme-Aid is a kit that can connect the public at large with ESU's tick-testing capabilities.
Locally, you'll find the kits at Daniel's Farm Store, 324 Glenbrook Road, Leola; Hosler's Hardware, 1811 Mount Hope Road, Manheim; and Get McCracken's LLC, 160 American Ave.
Inside the kit, you'll get a small plastic tool for removing a tick.
Joe Orloski, Huffman's business partner in Lyme-Aid, said you simply slide the forked tool behind the tick's rear end until the tick backs out of your skin — or your pet's — and onto the tool.
"I used it on our dog and it works pretty well," Huffman said.
Place the tick into the enclosed plastic specimen bag, and then place one of several tracking numbers on the bag.
"Each kit has a unique case number that the consumer can use to track their test results," Orloski said.
Fill out an enclosed card, providing all of your contact information, then place it and your specimen bag into a self-addressed envelope.
You'll also have to provide payment for the $39.99 test procedure. (That entire sum goes to the ESU Wildlife DNA Lab to pay for research projects.)
The kit has a suggested retail price of $5.99, and you can buy as many as you feel you need. (That money is divided among the product investors and the ESU lab.)
The only time you pay the lab fee is if you send in a tick for testing.
People who walk into Huffman's lab pay $75 for the same test.
Results are available within 3-5 business days, Orloski said.
"We will tell you either the tick sent to us tested positive for Lyme or it didn't," Huffman said.
According to Irwin, a tick must be embedded in a host for at least 24 hours in order to transmit Lyme disease.
So if you remove a tick that's been
on you or a pet less than that time, neither should contract Lyme, even if the tick is carrying it.
Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/826109_Testing-ticks-for-Lyme-disease.html#ixzz2No49HIqN
