BREWSTER – Tick season is well underway on Cape Cod and the Islands, and an entomologist with Cape Cod Cooperative Extension will give a free seminar on deer tick prevention Thursday afternoon in Brewster.
This follows the Cooperative Extension’s report that state Lyme disease rates are highest in Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and Barnstable counties.
Larry Dapsis said three prevalent species are currently causing more outbreaks of disease, due to the array of animals carrying pathogens.
“We have the dog tick—more annoying than anything else,” Dapsis said. “We have a new player, the lone star tick; and with the deer tick, it used to be that it was all about Lyme disease, but that’s changed.”
Dapsis said four different diseases can currently be carried by deer ticks, including Lyme disease, babesiosis, anaplasmosis, and the newest, borrelia miyamotoi which can cause relapsing fever.
According to Dapsis, Cape Cod Hospital treated 26 people last year for relapsing fever.
The seminar will take place Thursday, July 9, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster.
