3 ms·

Well, while I am fine with trying to make some infectious diseases to become extinct, I would be careful here, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_camp

by js8 5y ago

Well, while I am fine with trying to make some infectious diseases to become extinct, I would be careful here, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_campaign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_campaign. In any case, apparently somebody else wondered about that too: https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/wkyax/if_we_could_kill_all_ticks_is_there_a_big_downside/ https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/wkyax/if_we_cou... However, it's conceivable that in the future we will figure out how to carry out large-scale vaccinations of tics, so we eradicate certain diseases from them before they are transmitted to humans.

EvilEy3 5y ago
Doesn't change anything to be honest. Any parasite should be eradicated regardless of whether it is infectious or not.
- rincebrain 5y ago
  Much as I don't like ticks (and I really don't), I feel we should be extraordinarily careful before deliberately eliminating any species - they're almost certainly not the sole food source of anything, but even being a significant one might cause ripple effects. Plus, for all that they cause this and other problems when they bite us, it's not impossible that some of them trigger protective immune effects in some of the animals they bite, for example. I think the solution needs to be some combination of getting much better at permanently modulating immune responses post-exposure and finding a method to avoid this extreme response. Unfortunately, given the relative scarcity of these ticks and the newness of the condition, I would anticipate very little funding directly going toward finding a solution for it unless some ultrarich person takes it on as a cause du jour, or it comes "for free" with some other discoveries about immune modulation.
op00to 5y ago
One could kill the ticks that spread human disease while leaving the vast majority that don’t.
DantesKite 5y ago
I'm completely with you on this. I believe treating the disease is better than eliminating species with cascading effects we don't entirely understand. But it seems like killing ticks is much, much easier than completely curing a disease, so it's a short-term solution people approach instead. Not an ideal paradigm in my opinion. Would love to live in a world where parasites live in the ecosystem, but we're utterly immune to them, as opposed to a world with no parasites.

by js8 5y ago

EvilEy3 5y ago

Doesn't change anything to be honest. Any parasite should be eradicated regardless of whether it is infectious or not.

rincebrain 5y ago
Much as I don't like ticks (and I really don't), I feel we should be extraordinarily careful before deliberately eliminating any species - they're almost certainly not the sole food source of anything, but even being a significant one might cause ripple effects. Plus, for all that they cause this and other problems when they bite us, it's not impossible that some of them trigger protective immune effects in some of the animals they bite, for example. I think the solution needs to be some combination of getting much better at permanently modulating immune responses post-exposure and finding a method to avoid this extreme response. Unfortunately, given the relative scarcity of these ticks and the newness of the condition, I would anticipate very little funding directly going toward finding a solution for it unless some ultrarich person takes it on as a cause du jour, or it comes "for free" with some other discoveries about immune modulation.

op00to 5y ago

One could kill the ticks that spread human disease while leaving the vast majority that don’t.

DantesKite 5y ago

I'm completely with you on this. I believe treating the disease is better than eliminating species with cascading effects we don't entirely understand. But it seems like killing ticks is much, much easier than completely curing a disease, so it's a short-term solution people approach instead. Not an ideal paradigm in my opinion. Would love to live in a world where parasites live in the ecosystem, but we're utterly immune to them, as opposed to a world with no parasites.