New York State Officials Discover New Disease Spread By Deer

There was a big discovery of a disease that is being spread throughout New York State, which has people very concerned and is spread by deer flies, ticks, and even contaminated water and food.

It is another tick-borne illness called tularemia, and officials just found ticks on two beavers that tested positive. It is another serious illness that can be spread.

According to WKBW, here is what officials are worried about in New York State:

health officials are also warning about a recent and unusual finding, two beavers in the Sherman area have tested positive for tularemia, a rare but serious bacterial disease that can also be spread by ticks, as well as by deer flies, direct animal contact, or contaminated food and water.

What is the difference between tularemia and Lyme disease?

• Animals have been dying from tularemia and it is rare but sometimes hard to diagnose because the symptoms are average including fever, chills, headache, and body aches.
• Lyme disease symptoms include a bad rash, flu-like symptoms like chills, muscle aches, and swollen lymph nodes.

Have you noticed a lot more ticks over the past couple of years in New York State? We were trying to remember if there were this many kids when we were kids and it doesn't seem like the tick problem and Lyme disease were not as prevalent.