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 “How Tick-Safe Is Your Backyard?” on Monday, October 1, from 7 to 8:30 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 focus on tick bite prevention including landscape management, wildlife management and the safe use of pesticides. He will talk about the occurrence of tick-associated diseases including Lyme Disease, ehrlichiosis and babesiosis.

Lyme Disease now rivals AIDS as the fastest growing infectious disease. Determined by an independent survey, an average of 39 percent of households in Wilton, Ridgefield, and Newtown had a physician-documented case of Lyme Disease. It is possible to contract more than one tick-borne disease from a single bite. But there is no conclusive diagnostic test or difinitive treatment, according to many health professionals.

Twenty-six percent of the ticks collected by residents in Newtown and tested for Lyme Disease were positive.

Children are at greatest risk of contracting Lyme Disease and tick-borne illnesses, according to the Lyme Disease Task Force.

According to Dr Stafford, the likelihood of ticks can be reduced by 50 percent by proper landscaping practices, and even more by the safe use of pesticides.

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.