Saturday, March 10, 2001; B1-B3

SSU students hunt Lyme-carrying ticks

State parks are sites chosen for collecting arachnids that transmit disease to people

Sonoma State University student Danielle Young drags a felt flag across vegetation at Sugarloaf State Park to gather ticks for study.

By DEREK J. MOORE;
Photos JEFF KAN LEE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

No sooner had Danielle Young brushed the grass with a piece of felt than she got what she was looking for: a tiny blood-sucker that strikes horror into hikers and horse riders everywhere.
    "Wow," she said, surprised at how easy it was to find ticks Friday at Sugarloaf State Park, east of Santa Rosa.
    In only 15 minutes, Young, a biology major at Sonoma State University, had collected dozens of ticks, plucking them from the felt using tweezers and separating them into vials according to sex.
    Most people do their best to avoid ticks, but not Young, 22, who is participating in a student project tracking the prevalence of Lyme disease in four state parks in Sonoma and Marin counties, including Sugarloaf and Annadel.
    County and state health officials are hoping to compare the students' research with their own, and ultimately, provide more accurate information to the public about the prevalence of disease-carrying ticks.
    "We'd really like to see this take off," said Piper Kimball, a biologist with the Marin-Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District who helped collect bugs Friday.
    After spraying themselves with repellent, the pair walked along Sugarloaf's trails brushing the ground with felt "flags." They were hunting the western black-legged tick, which carries the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, a debilitating illness marked initially by flulike symptoms.
    They were particularly eager to find younger ticks in the nymphal stage, which like to hang out in shaded areas and typically carry a higher risk for disease.
    "It's kind of like the teen-age stage," Kimball said. "They're the ones causing the trouble."
    The combination of better weather and young ticks makes this time of year tick season, particularly hazardous for outdoor enthusiasts.
    Kimball found a tick on a long blade of grass that was "questing," or reaching out its legs hoping to find attachment. Once a tick burrows into skin, it will usually feed for about 48 hours.

    It's when the tick regurgitates that the trouble begins, and why it's so important to take care when removing one.
    David Yong, director of lab services for Sonoma County, recommends using "tick forceps" that can be purchased at a pharmacy. Burning a tick off or pulling it with fingers is not recommended.
    "People do all kinds of things, but they possibly cause the tick to regurgitate bacteria into the skin even faster," Young said.

Ixodes pacificus (left), the black-legged tick is the main carrier of Lyme disease, a debilitating illness. Dermacentor occidentalis (right), the Pacific Coast tick feeds on rodents, cattle, horses, deer and humans.

    Of the 2,000 ticks tested by the county last year, just over 1 percent came back positive for the bacterium causing Lyme disease, Yong said.
    In that time, eight cases of the disease were reported in Sonoma County. That compared with three in Marin County and 104 statewide.
    But the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the number of cases could be much higher across the United States, because of underreporting or faulty data.
    That's where the research conducted by the SSU students could really make a difference. Unlike the county, the students are not testing ticks that have already bitten people, but ones they gather themselves. That job mainly falls to Young, who lives with other biology students in Rohnert Park.
    "I come home and put ticks in the fridge. They put in seaweed. You don't want to eat anything in a vial," she said of her living conditions.
    She's joined by fellow students Vicente Chavez and Riley Park III, whose primary duties are to analyze the ticks using Sonoma State's sophisticated DNA equipment.
    Their teacher, Judy Sakanari, said the students will be looking for the tell-tale signs of Lyme disease and of ehrlichiosis, which primarily afflicts horses. She doesn't expect any results until early summer.
    She also doesn't expect any breakthroughs -- just more data that can be used by health officials and the public in assessing the risk.
    "We're just going to try to keep an eye on what's out there," she said.
    For their efforts, the students each will receive a $1,400 stipend for the project, which is sponsored by the vector control district, the California Department of Health and by SSU.

You can reach Staff Writer Derek J. Moore at 521-5336 or dmoore@pressdemocrat.com