TICK PARALYSIS affects nearly all warm-blooded land animals, including humans. When it is diagnosed in the early stages, tick paralysis is easily treatable using pharmacotherapy (Table 1). However, in the absence of treatment, mortality rates of up to10% in humans and 7% in domestic animals have been reported. Unlike tick-borne diseases that are caused by infection with a pathogen, such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tick paralysis is caused by transmission of a neurotoxin secreted by the salivary glands of gravid (egg-laden) female ticks during feeding. The neurotoxin responsible for tick paralysis was first isolated in 1966; it causes a form of motor paralysis similar to that associated with Guillain-Barre syndrome in humans.
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