Faculty Publications and Presentations
Publication Date
8-4-2021
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Biology
Abstract
Ticks are notorious for their capability of transmitting diseases that have debilitated humanity for thousands of years. They can confer lifelong chronic ailments via pathogenic bacterial species that they harbor inside themselves. These parasitic tick species, namely the Ixodes scapularis tick is responsible for hundreds of thousands of Lyme disease infections each year. This profound tick continues to produce the highest rate of zoonotic disease in the United States each year. Many may ask why these tick species are so infectious when ticks were originally designed by a benevolent God. Why would a good Creator choose to design a creature ultimately capable of such considerable virulence? What accounts for the continued resurgence of Lyme disease? There are many contributing factors that help to resolve this complex question, such as its relative displacement and the many compounding mutations on the species itself that attributes to its overall pathogenicity that in turn may violate its original design. One of the primary goals of this article is to elaborate on the early ancestry of these ticks that eventually gave way to the development of critically invasive infections such as Lyme disease.
Recommended Citation
Gillen, Alan L. and Eakin, Matthew, "The Origin of Ticks and the Genesis and Emergence of Lyme Disease" (2021). Faculty Publications and Presentations. 194.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/bio_chem_fac_pubs/194
