State Scientist To Speak On

Ticks And Lyme Disease

The Newtown Rotary Club in cooperation with the Newtown Lyme Disease Task Force is sponsoring a talk entitled “Fight the Bite Forum – Ticks and Lyme Disease” on Monday, July 31, at 7 pm at the Fireside Inn. The program is free and open to the public.

The featured speaker will be Kirby C. Stafford, PhD, chief scientist for the Department of Forestry and Horticulture for the State of Connecticut. His talk will review the history and expansion of Lyme Disease, the biology of the tick, and strategies to reduce the risk of bites and disease including landscape management, safe use of pesticides, and wildlife management.

Lyme disease has become the most frequently reported arthropod-associated disease in the United States, and New England is the epicenter. The blacklegged tick or “deer” tick Ixodes scapulans is also the vector for human granulocytic ehrlichiosis and human babesiosis.

Dr Stafford attended Colorado State University and Kansas State University for his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in entomology. He received a doctorate in medical-veterinary entomology from Texas A&M University in 1985. He worked at Texas A&M and Pennsylvania State University prior to joining the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven in 1987.

Dr Stafford’s research focuses on the ecology and control of the blacklegged tick. He has been published frequently in peer-reviewed journals, presented his research at scientific meetings, and spoken extensively to the public about ticks and tick-associated diseases.

The Newtown Lyme Disease Task Force is a group of volunteers from Newtown and surrounding communities whose mission is to provide education and information for the prevention, identification, treatment, and understanding of Lyme Disease and other tick-born illnesses. For more information, call Maggie Shaw at 270-1834.