35-year tick study upends Lyme disease assumptions — mice, not deer, drive the wave

A 35-year study by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has overturned the long-held belief that deer populations drive tick numbers. Researchers found that small mammals such as mice play the key role in spreading Lyme disease. The illness affects around 500,000 Americans, over 200,000 Western Europeans and roughly 30,000 Poles each year.

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