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US Invaded By Savage Tick That Sucks Animals Dry, Spawns Without Mating (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A vicious species of tick originating from Eastern Asia has invaded the U.S. and is rapidly sweeping the Eastern Seaboard, state and federal officials warn. The tick, the Asian longhorned tick (or Haemaphysalis longicornis), has the potential to transmit an assortment of nasty diseases to humans, including an emerging virus that kills up to 30 percent of victims. So far, the tick hasn't been found carrying any diseases in the U.S. It currently poses the largest threat to livestock, pets, and wild animals; the ticks can attack en masse and drain young animals of blood so quickly that they die -- an execution method called exsanguination.
Key to the tick's explosive spread and bloody blitzes is that its invasive populations tend to reproduce asexually, that is, without mating. Females drop up to 2,000 eggs over the course of two or three weeks, quickly giving rise to a ravenous army of clones. In one U.S. population studied so far, experts encountered a massive swarm of the ticks in a single paddock, totaling well into the thousands. They speculated that the population might have a ratio of about one male to 400 females. Yesterday, August 7, Maryland became the eighth state to report the presence of the tick. It followed a similar announcement last Friday, August 3, from Pennsylvania. Other affected states include New York, Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Key to the tick's explosive spread and bloody blitzes is that its invasive populations tend to reproduce asexually, that is, without mating. Females drop up to 2,000 eggs over the course of two or three weeks, quickly giving rise to a ravenous army of clones. In one U.S. population studied so far, experts encountered a massive swarm of the ticks in a single paddock, totaling well into the thousands. They speculated that the population might have a ratio of about one male to 400 females. Yesterday, August 7, Maryland became the eighth state to report the presence of the tick. It followed a similar announcement last Friday, August 3, from Pennsylvania. Other affected states include New York, Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.
What could possibly go wrong in the long run with such genetic uniformity?
Given all the species that do asexual reproduction, not much.
And not just bacteria and plants either. Bdelloid rotifers were sexual at one time, but got rid of their males, and now they're all female and adapting well enough with parthenogenetic asexual reproduction.
Here's what I found:
The longhorned tick can transmit an animal disease called theileriosis to cattle, which can cause considerable blood loss and occasional death of calves, but mainly is important to dairy farmers because of decreased milk production and sheep farmers because of decreased wool quantity and quality.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
So the tick doesn't suck animals dry. It's a vector for a disease, theileriosis, which only affects cattle and, if left untreated, kills the host. Blood loss through the nose and bowels are two of the symptoms but infected cattle don't die from blood loss (exsanguination).
The longhorned tick is sometimes also a vector for other common tick-borne diseases.
This is a non-story for anyone except researchers and maybe farmers if the ticks start spreading theileriosis. There are other species of tick in Asia, Europe, and north Africa which are more common vectors for theileriosis.
Ars Technica have published a misleading and factually incorrect article which is apparently intended to cause fear and anxiety among millions of people. They have displayed all the journalistic integrity of Facebook.
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
The introduction of rabbits and foxes into Australia is a textbook case of the devastating effects of invasive species. Bonus points for the fact it was done on purpose by hunters, strictly for sport.