Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

A Study Of Ticks And Tick-Borne Livestock Pathogens In Pakistan, Shahid Karim, Khemraj Budachetri, Nabanita Mukherjee, Jaclyn Williams, Asma Kausar, Muhammad Jawadul Hassan, Steven W. Adamson, Scot E. Dowd, Dmitry Apanskevich, Abdullah Arijo, Zia Uddin Sindhu, Muhammad Azam Kakar, Raja Muhammad Dilpazir Khan, Shafiq Ullah, Muhammad Sohail Sajid, Abid Ali, Zafar Iqbal

Faculty Publications

Background

As obligate blood-feeding arthropods, ticks transmit pathogens to humans and domestic animals more often than other arthropod vectors. Livestock farming plays a vital role in the rural economy of Pakistan, and tick infestation causes serious problems with it. However, research on tick species diversity and tick-borne pathogens has rarely been conducted in Pakistan. In this study, a systematic investigation of the tick species infesting livestock in different ecological regions of Pakistan was conducted to determine the microbiome and pathobiome diversity in the indigenous ticks.

Methodology/Principal findings A total of 3,866 tick specimens were morphologically identified as 19 different tick …

Is High Folic Acid Intake A Risk Factor For Autism?—A Review, Darrell Wiens, M. Catherine Desoto

Faculty Publications

Folate is required for metabolic processes and neural development. Insuring its adequate levels for pregnant women through supplementation of grain-based foods with synthetic folic acid (FA) in order to prevent neural tube defects has been an ongoing public health initiative. However, because women are advised to take multivitamins containing FA before and throughout pregnancy, the supplementation together with natural dietary folates has led to a demographic with high and rising serum levels of unmetabolized FA. This raises concerns about the detrimental effects of high serum synthetic FA, including a rise in risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some recent studies …