For a friend -- Satellites to put Lyme ticks under microscope, NASAawards $750K grant for Lyme disease study

Satellites to put Lyme ticks under microscope
NASA awards $750K grant for Lyme disease study

http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/p...160350/-1/NEWS


By Lara Bricker

September 16, 2007 6:00 AM

Watch out Lyme-carrying ticks, Big Brother is watching you — from outer
space.

Satellites from space will be monitoring ticks in New Hampshire as part
of a three-year, $750,000 project aimed at studying the ecology and risk
factors of Lyme disease in the state, which has seen a surge in the
number of people afflicted with the disease in recent years.

An interdisciplinary research team from the University of New Hampshire,
the state Department of Health and Human Services and the private sector
were awarded the $750,00 grant recently by the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA).

The researchers will be armed with satellite imagery, field samples,
human Lyme disease case data and mathematical models as they work to
identify hot spots for ticks. They hope that will allow them to issue
early warnings to residents to help prevent exposure to the disease.

The state Department of Health and Human Services has been engaged in an
ongoing effort in recent years to get to the bottom of why the state is
seeing so many more cases of Lyme disease, state Public Health
Veterinarian Jason Stull said.

In 2005, there were 271 cases of Lyme disease statewide, according to
Stull, while in 2006 there were 617 cases statewide. Half of the cases
last year, or 310, were reported in Rockingham County.

"This is what's called an emerging disease in New Hampshire," Stull said.

Deer tick season in New Hampshire usually starts at the end of September
and runs through early November.

Stull, a co-investigator on the project, is also an assistant clinical
professor in the UNH Department of Health Management and Policy.

"Information provided by this project will be critical in order to
better understand the ecology and human risk of Lyme disease in the
state, which in turn will directly assist in its prevention and
control," Stull said.

The Department of Health and Human Services is also accepting bids for a
smaller project related to tracking the spread of Lyme disease, Stull
said. It has $40,000 for a tick-collection study that will involve
collection of ixodes scapularis, also called black legged ticks or deer
ticks.

They are the species that transmits Lyme disease.

Ticks are collected with a white cloth attached to a dowel that is
dragged through areas of vegetation. The deer tick looks similar to a
dog tick, but it is smaller and more rounded and lacks white markings.
Adult males are very dark brown, almost black, while adult females are
dark chestnut brown on their head and legs and orange-red on the rear
half of their bodies.

The $40,000 tick survey will also look at whether the ticks are carrying
borrelia burgdorferi, a coil-shaped bacteria that causes Lyme disease.
The ticks that transmit Lyme disease also can carry several other
diseases including babesia, similar to malaria, and anaplasma, which can
cause anaplasmosis, a disease that often results in fever and headaches.

There are also differing opinions on why more ticks are carrying Lyme
disease. A 2004 study by Alan Eaton, an entomologist with the University
of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, showed that 50 to 70 percent of
ticks collected in Durham, Lee and Concord were carrying the bacteria
that causes Lyme disease.

Stull, the state veterinarian, said some think the weather is the cause.

"This particular species of ticks is very sensitive to changes in the
climate. It likes hot, humid weather," Stull said. "It likes fairly
moist weather."

State health officials, while waiting for the tick survey this fall, are
urging people to educate themselves about Lyme disease.

"We're starting with really trying to make sure the public is aware of
how this disease is transmitted and how you can prevent it," Stull said,
adding people should be aware of walking in wooded or vegetative areas
where ticks cling to leaves.

"It really comes down to personal protection."

Towns in southern Maine, like York and Kittery, have already implemented
tick programs, similar to their mosquito programs, according to Michael
Morrison, an entomologist and owner of Municipal Pest Management. He
expects that some of the towns in New Hampshire may implement similar
measures in 2008.

"Lyme disease is definitely emerging in New Hampshire," he said.
"Unfortunately, I think they're going to see a lot more of it."

Stull said the two tick projects have a different approach, but the same
eventual goal.

"The NASA study is a long-term study. It's really looking at the ecology
of the disease. It's got a much more global approach to infectious
disease technology," Stull said, adding the $40,00 tick survey is more
centered on the immediate risk to people and better understanding that
risk. "And how we can best assist the citizens of New Hampshire and the
physicians of New Hampshire in decreasing that risk."

Over time, the team on the NASA project will build the capacity to
identify potential hot spots for transmission of Lyme to humans, thus
making an early warning system possible. They hope the same method could
be used to help study and track diseases such as Eastern equine
encephalitis and West Nile virus or even the avian flu.

"That predictive ability is something we'll achieve down the road," said
project co-investigator Xiangming Xiao of the UNH Complex Systems
Research Center within the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and
Space (EOS).

Xiao specializes in the applications of satellite remote sensing and
geographical information systems (GIS) technologies to ecosystems
science and natural resources.

"Before we can make predictions, we have to build the research and
education capacity."

That capacity will be made possibly by using both satellite imagery and
data from live tick surveillance and collections. That data will be used
to create a mathematical model that will allow researchers to have a
diagnostic and predictive ability. The long-term goal of the research
team is to establish a center of excellence in the application of
geospatial technology — satellite remote sensing, global positioning
systems, and GIS — for disease ecology and public health at UNH.

UNH research professor David Bartlett, the principle investigator on the
Lyme project, said the recent award will galvanize an emerging area of
research strength at UNH and across the state.

"Applying space technology to disease ecology is a promising new field,
and this project will further develop existing technologies as well as
help initiate a training program for students in a variety of fields,"
Bartlett said. "This innovative collaboration of specialists in remote
sensing, geographic information systems, ecology, and public health
places New Hampshire to lead future efforts in the state, in the region,
and around the globe."