Aug 8, 2008 7:55 pm US/Eastern
Lyme Disease Prompts Talk Of Culling Deer Herd
DOVER (WBZ) ―
A population explosion in the suburbs is leading to a serious issue of Lyme Disease, and now one town is taking action.
Irene George's back yard is like Fort Apache with fences around everything -- the vegetables and the flowers. But the deer still get in.
"They come up on the front steps and eat the bushes," George said.
But now there's a serious health threat from the mushrooming deer population -- Lyme disease. And there are about four times as many deer in Dover as there should be.
The town is sending out survey letters to everyone in Dover to determine how many people have contracted Lyme disease.
Dover is now thinking about culling the herd.
"How effective it is in a community, in a suburban neighborhood community like this, where the deer can wander around, there really is no hard data," said Harvey George with the Health Department.
George said in the long-term, the best plan is to develop a vaccine for the disease.
Many residents agree the herd has to be thinned out.
In 2006, there were nearly 2,500 cases of Lyme disease diagnosed in Massachusetts.
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