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Bacterium SIZE MATTERS: Deer ticks -- vectors of Borrelia Burgdorferi -- are half the size of the common dog tick, which is not associated with Lyme disease. As a new generation of adolescent deer tick enjoys its first blood meal, scientists in the United States and abroad continue to focus their research efforts on understanding and preventing Lyme disease. Ticks infected with the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi cause more than 10,000 cases of Lyme disease in the U.S. each year, according to

Written byKaren Hopkin

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Bacterium

SIZE MATTERS: Deer ticks -- vectors of Borrelia Burgdorferi -- are half the size of the common dog tick, which is not associated with Lyme disease.

As a new generation of adolescent deer tick enjoys its first blood meal, scientists in the United States and abroad continue to focus their research efforts on understanding and preventing Lyme disease. Ticks infected with the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi cause more than 10,000 cases of Lyme disease in the U.S. each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Scientists specializing in immunology, epidemiology, parasitology, and even rheumatology are all pursuing lines of research they hope will lead to a better understanding of how B. burgdorferi causes Lyme disease and how people can best avoid infection.

Researchers studying disease prevention cover a lot of ground, whether they're crawling through the underbrush tracking infected ticks in the field or conducting large-scale clinical ...

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