Taking Aim At Tick-Borne Disease

The members of Newtown’s Tick-Borne Disease Action Committee seemed relieved to have finally finished their work. After two and a half years of picking their way through the technical and emotional minefields surrounding the issues associated with the alarming spread of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases in the region, they presented their report to the Board of Selectmen last week with both a sense of pride in their work and disbelief that they had finally come to the end of their formal charge to examine and report on the issue.

Newtown has the highest per-capita incidence of Lyme disease in Fairfield County, according to the Department of Public Health. There is no getting away from the threat. The chief entomologist of the state Agricultural Experiment Station told the committee that people are most likely to encounter disease-ridden ticks right in their own backyards, which underscores how causes and effects swirled round and round in the panel’s data collection. The sheer proliferation backyards in Newtown and the rest of Fairfield County has so fragmented wildlife habitats that the rodents and deer that serve as a delivery system for tick-borne disease (TBD) have been forced into proximity with humans, where this chain of events plays out its sad pathology.

In presenting the report to the selectmen, the Tick-Borne Disease Action Committee acknowledged that while members worked cooperatively and with mutual respect, the content of their report belies the “elevated passions” of its members, particularly when it comes to strategies for lowering the risks of tick-borne disease in town through an organized deer cull. While the overall report did recommend a deer population reduction program, including controlled hunts on town-owned property and the promotion of deer hunting on private property throughout town, a “minority report” of committee dissenters questioned the efficacy of such programs. To reduce the local deer herd to concentrations that had been shown in rare and particular studies to have some impact on tick-borne disease would require deer eradication across Newtown’s 60 square miles on a scale that most agree would impractical, if not impossible. And at what cost?

Putting aside the issue of a deer cull, which we hope the Board of Selectmen will for both financial and scientific reasons, the committee’s report includes four basic truths that everyone needs to hear and take to heart: Newtowners are at risk of developing TBD; TBD presents serious health risks; TBD is preventable; and actions taken by an individual can effectively prevent TBD. Together with improved management and understanding of the town’s ecology through proper landscaping and forestry practices, sport hunting, judicious wildlife management, and smart development, a continuous program of public education on TBD prevention and early detection will make Newtown a significantly healthier town.