Tens of millions of pheasants released for game shoots in Britain could be spreading Lyme disease, new research suggests.
Ticks are more likely to carry the bacteria that cause the debilitating disease in areas where pheasants live.
Scientists studied ticks in 25 woodland areas in south-west England where pheasants were released and 25 nearby control sites where no pheasants were released.
They found the bacteria that can cause the infectious Lyme disease, Borrelia spp., was almost 2.5 times more common in ticks in the pheasant-release areas.
According to the RSPB, over 30 million pheasants are released into the UK countryside annually for game shooting.
Now the new findings mean rural and woodland workers and visitors may have to take extra precautions to avoid being infected, as reported by Need To Know.
The research was carried out by the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter and the UK Health Security Agency, UKHSA.
Emile Michels, from the centre, said: “Our findings suggest there may be an increased risk of potential exposure to Borrelia-infected ticks for people – such as gamekeepers – who work in woodlands where pheasants are released in numbers.”
Researchers tested ticks and found that, overall, the proportion containing Borrelia was 7.8% in pheasant-release woodlands and 3.2% where pheasants were not released.
Dr Barbara Tschirren, also from the University of Exeter, said: “Our findings are evidence of spillback – where non-native species increase the prevalence of native pathogens.
“This can be an important route for the emergence of zoonoses – diseases that animals can give to humans.”
Dr Jolyon Medlock, head of the medical entomology and zoonoses ecology team at UKHSA, said: “While we have observed an increase in the bacteria that can cause Lyme disease in ticks, we do not have data on the resulting impact on human health, including evidence of Lyme infection.”
He said they would continue to research what drives the transmission of the bacteria.
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