[neilep (OP)]

As a sheepy I of course am not a blood sucking vampire. I tested this by eating garlic, counting rice and sunbathing nude at midday. All indications are that I am not a vampire, despite the now ongoing public indecency case against me. Guess I should have not done that in Trafalgar Square !


Do blood-sucking creatures, like mosquitoes, ticks, vampire bats, or leeches, contract the host's ailments or diseases through their feeding habits?

In other words, can these blood-suckers acquire diseases or health conditions from their hosts?

I'm curious tEWE know if there are any docEWEmented cases or scientific studies on this topic.

whajafink

🐏Neil🐏
I'm off to bite the neighbour !!

[paul cotter]

As far as i know(which is not a lot) most pathogens transmitted by insects and arachnids just hitch a ride in these vectors and do not cause illness. Your post however has me greatly concerned for your wellbeing: you mention garlic, etc but no mention of sheep dip. If you have not been dipped you are at risk from warble flies(I think!) and possibly botflies- get dipped as soon as possible.

[neilep (OP)]

As far as i know(which is not a lot) most pathogens transmitted by insects and arachnids just hitch a ride in these vectors and do not cause illness. Your post however has me greatly concerned for your wellbeing: you mention garlic, etc but no mention of sheep dip. If you have not been dipped you are at risk from warble flies(I think!) and possibly botflies- get dipped as soon as possible.

Thank ewe Paul. No need for concern, my favourite sheep dip is minced lamb guacomole 🤮....I can assure ewe, I have had my annual bath ,but , in detecting any vampiric tendencies it was not required !  That is very interesting that the blood suckers may in fact be immune. Maybe a passing parasite expert will chime in to confirm. We can only hope !! :-)

[paul cotter]

Minced lamb??, that's cannibalism!

[alancalverd]

Heston Blumenthal  may have suggested botflies in garlic but I don't think they were popular even with folk who like to pay $100 a bite to have their tastebuds insulted.

However it seems that parasites do distinguish between vector and host, and some (the liver fluke will be familiar to the OP) have several distinct forms during their life cycle. Thanks to evolution, at least one vector species must be reasonably immune   or not exhibit seriously disabling symptoms, so the cycle doesn't get broken before the final reproductive phase of the parasite. So it's handy if each temporary host is of a very different genus, with very different physiology, from the next.

Except for kuru. Hence the reason that neilep should refrain from lamb guacamole.

[paul cotter]

Kuru?, I don't think so, SCRAPIE is the ovine spongieform encephalopathy. Kuru is passed in humans by eating the brains of one's ancestors, only in Papua-New Guinea(supposedly wiped out now, or nearly so).