Michigan State University researchers are building on years of wildlife disease research to explore how free-ranging white-tailed deer could safely receive an oral treatment capable of killing ticks or reducing their ability to reproduce, potentially disrupting a critical part of the tick life cycle.
“Our goal is to find ways to protect people from tick-borne disease while also sustaining healthy wildlife and the ecosystems we all depend on,” said Tsao, a professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources with an appointment in MSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “This work gives us an opportunity to explore how we can reduce tick populations by targeting a wildlife host that is critical to the tick life cycle.”