Editor

Rosie Strang’s letter ‘Lyme disease fear over shoot’ quotes Klaus Kurtenbach of the Oxford University Tick Research Group stating that ‘without artificial rearing of pheasants Lyme disease would almost certainly disappear in the UK’.

However, I have spoken with Dr Andrew Hoodless who co-authored the Kurtenbach paper showing that in laboratory conditions pheasants were ‘competent’ vectors for the bacterium Borrelia garinii, one of the bacterial strains causing Lyme disease. He has elaborated, saying that while pheasants are likely to increase the prevalence of this bacterial strain, they are not competent hosts for another Lyme disease bacterium, carried mainly by small mammals, and hence will reduce the incidence of that strain. He indicated that current knowledge suggests a complex system of different Borrelia strains circulating in a range of hosts, not just pheasants, making it difficult to predict Lyme disease risk in a given location, not least because deer numbers and vegetation structure are also important factors.

There are many areas in the UK, including Richmond Park in London where there are no pheasants, but the risk of catching Lyme disease is regarded as high because there are other hosts carrying Borrelia bacteria. Sheep farmers in areas such as Ceredigion are well aware of the risk of catching Lyme disease, with sheep being a primary host for ticks carrying Borrelia.

Owen Williams. Trefenter

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