Rural Affairs and Environment Committee,

Meeting date: Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Official Report 268KB pdf

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Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases

Item 6 on the agenda is ticks and tick-borne diseases, which the committee will recall was raised by members at our away day last summer. A tick task force—I must be careful how I say that—has been convened by the Government and we appointed John Scott as the committee's reporter on it. He attended a meeting of the tick task force on 25 April. I invite him to make some comments about that meeting.

The meeting focused on the incidence of ticks throughout Scotland and we heard of the growing danger of Lyme disease to countryside users. We heard of the need to make the public more aware of that danger in a responsible and proportionate way. We also discussed the need to develop a better communication strategy for those who walk and live in the countryside. We must examine best practice in dealing with tick-borne diseases elsewhere in the world, particularly in the Baltic states and Russia, bearing in mind that there are different types of tick-borne diseases elsewhere in the world, such as encephalitis.

The group's work is on-going. It was extremely interesting and the next meeting will be in autumn 2008. I was given more papers prior to the meeting, should anyone want a copy of them. If you are the least bit interested in ticks and the diseases and dangers thereof, you will find them fascinating.

At the risk of finding this fascinating, members with constituents who have been diagnosed with Lyme disease or whose diagnosis is disputed have become aware that the national health service in Scotland is perhaps not geared up to diagnose tick-related diseases. I ask that, while the task force is on-going, you feed that information back to it, because there seem to be issues surrounding the early diagnosis of tick-related diseases, which obviously is vital.

Early diagnosis is vital in the treatment of Lyme disease. It is fair to say that the NHS in Scotland could perhaps do more to ensure that general practitioners, in particular, as they are on the front line, are better informed about how to identify the disease.

On a practical note, I put it on the record that it is vital for anyone who finds a tick attached to their body to remove it as soon as possible and to do so in the proper way.

On John Scott's final point, my son has had two such incidents. On one occasion he ended up in hospital following a tick bite. I do not think that he had Lyme disease, but the bite caused a very severe reaction.

People who work on the land have made the point that because of climate change, ticks are surviving through the winter as well as through the summer months, which is a serious issue for anyone in the countryside.

John Scott's final point is important. How do people know what to do? I hope that the task force will focus on the media and encourage them to write the story up in a positive but sane and sensible way and to give advice to people on what they should do if they find a tick. It is extraordinarily difficult to remove ticks, and there are lots of myths and folk remedies, which can be dangerous. It is important to encourage the media to treat the issue as being serious for a lot of people and to write about it in a sensitive way. I hope that that will happen.

I assure you that the task force's intention is to provide better public information. It is looking at different ways of doing that, such as putting information on notice boards at the entrance to national parks to ensure greater public awareness of ticks. That is work in progress.

There is a growing public health issue in Scotland, partly because many sheep are coming off the hills, particularly in northern and western areas. Sheep are now regarded by some estate owners as tick mops and tick sponges because, regrettably, from my point of view—I declare an interest as a sheep farmer—that is their only value. The perception is that sheep are used for that purpose on certain sporting estates.

I flag up the danger of assuming that the issue applies only to vast tracts of land and in the hills, because ticks are now in people's domestic gardens. I have experience of animals that do not leave their garden nevertheless getting ticks. There is a need to disabuse people of the notion that ticks are a problem only for hikers in the hills, because that is not the case. It is now possible for people to receive tick bites in relatively urban gardens.

Is the same species involved?

In different parts of the world there are slightly different species.

Is there a single species in Scotland?

I am afraid that I cannot say.

Ticks are generally seen as things that we should guard against when we walk in the hills or out in the fields, but people need to be aware that it is possible to have an altercation with a tick in their own back garden. That is the concern. It is now a far more important health issue for urban Scotland than may hitherto have been the case.

John Scott can take our comments back to the next meeting of the task force, which I understand is in the autumn.

Yes.

Is there a vaccine?

Vaccines have been created for sheep, the most memorable of which is the louping ill vaccine from the Moredun Research Institute. That vaccine is becoming more and more difficult to manufacture, given the low level of demand and, because it is very unstable, the high cost of producing it. To the best of my knowledge—which is not exhaustive—there are no vaccines for humans. However, there are effective treatments for Lyme disease, provided that they are delivered early. If you have a tick bite, it is vital that you remove the tick within 24 hours to reduce the chance of being infected with Lyme disease.