PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2016-03-21 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Do Opossums Kill Ticks, Inhibit the Spread of Lyme Disease? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • On 18 March 2016, an image of an opossum was uploaded to Imgur with overlaid text reading as follows: Given the frequently absurd nature of amazing facts memes, many viewers were rightly skeptical of the claim attached to that photograph. The image provided no citations to substantiate the information it presented, and the notion that opossums were a possible tool in the epidemiological battle against Lyme disease seemed implausible to some. As it turned out, there is at least some truth to the opossum-as-tick-slayer rumors. On 18 April 2014, the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and NewsTimes published an article that focused on the role of opossums in the spread of Lyme disease with respect to their role in the ecosystem: Ostfeld had previously discouraged disruption of opossum populations for this reason. In July 2012, he said in a podcast: Ostfeld was also named as one author of a September 2009 study in Proceedings of the Royal Society which examined animal kingdom hosts as ecological traps for the vector of Lyme disease and asserted that: As far as amazing facts images go, the opossum/Lyme disease one was very well researched, with numbers that matched up with what ecologists have learned about opossums, deer ticks, and the spread of Lyme disease in recent years (although those studies surmised opossums kill approximately 5,000 ticks per season, not per week). (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url