Slimmer Ticks, Less Disease: Tick-semen protein is potential vaccine
Pregnant ticks gain a lot of weight. In fact, after females mate and as they feed on a host’s blood, they quickly grow to about 100 times their original size.
Researchers have long suspected that the semen of male ticks contains a protein that causes this weight gain. Reuben Kaufman of the University of Alberta in Edmonton and his colleagues have now isolated such a protein, which they call voraxin, and used it to demonstrate the potential for an antitick vaccine.