Keep The Facts Straight

On Tick-Borne Disease

To the Editor:

I would like to correct some misinformation in a recent Bee article (“DEEP To Support Tick-Borne Disease Prevention, Not Deer Cull” by John Voket, June 28, 2012). The title itself is very misleading. I attended the Board of Selectmen meeting where this was discussed and the first selectman was very clear that the Board of Selectmen support a two-pronged approach involving first public education regarding tick-borne disease prevention and second, consulting the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). The DEEP does not advise about tick-borne diseases. What they do is to advise about deer “management” a term that means deer herd reduction by killing.

First Selectman Llodra was quoted as saying “We’re hoping the DEEP’s partnership will help us elevate the knowledge of ties between the deer population and the public health issue of tick-borne disease.” Deer are involved in the complicated lifecycle of ticks, but the relationships between tick-borne diseases, human development (with resultant forest fragmentation), other animals that host ticks, and many other factors is still being worked out. There is absolutely no community comparable to Newtown that has demonstrated either a reduction in deer numbers or, more importantly, a change in tick-borne disease incidence, even after several years of deer killing programs, including those suggested by the DEEP.

The DEEP is not in the business of “elevating knowledge.” Their studies on deer are rarely if ever published in reputable scientific journals but rather in their own (“vanity”) publications. The DEEP makes money from hunting sales and seems to have an agenda to kill deer, which they package and try to sell as beneficial to us.

Newtown has had a Tick-Borne Disease Action Committee that met for over two years, working hard to prepare a comprehensive document on the subject of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. This is available on the town website. The committee voted overwhelmingly to have the town use “four posters,” a system of applying acaricide (tick killer) to deer using simple devices. There is an extensive literature demonstrating the effectiveness of the device and yet neither the town nor the DEEP has given serious thought to using it.

There is already a great deal of confusion about this topic. Let us at least try to keep the facts straight.

Sincerely,

Marjorie Cramer, MD

38 Huntingtown Road, Newtown                                       July 1, 2012