A few weeks ago, Goudarz Molaei went on a research expedition to a wooded coastal area in southwestern Connecticut. Within minutes, droves of troublesome residents of the area were crawling across his coveralls. He was covered in ticks.
Molaei, who directs the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station’s tick surveillance and testing program, collected as many as he could and took them back to his lab. The final tally: more than 200 of the tiny, parasitic arachnids.
The experience was “quite disconcerting,” he said, and in line with predictions that we’re in for a bad tick year. “We have to be extremely vigilant,” he said. “We’re going to have higher than average tick activity this year.”
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UK researchers have discovered a new bacterial species living in the gut that they say plays a key role in nitrogen availability - the process that makes available amino acids and proteins for the host.