Why Don't Chickens that Eat Ticks Get Lyme Disease

Worried about getting Lyme disease from your chickens? Watch this!

Timestamps

0:00 Introduction

0:31 Tick bites and chickens

1:35 Why don't chickens that eat ticks get Lyme disease?

2:58 Share your success story!

In this video, we're going to talk about why chickens that eat ticks don't get Lyme disease.

There haven't been any known cases of humans getting Lyme disease from chickens. This is interesting because chickens are known to eat ticks.

Chickens can't get Lyme disease from eating ticks. This is because of how the digestive system works. When the tick is digested by the chicken, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease is killed off by the friendly bacteria, enzymes, and stomach acid.

A chicken's stomach has a pH of between 1.3 and 3.5, which will kill off most microorganisms.

Additionally, when a chicken gets the bacteria that causes Lyme from a bite, its immune response is strong enough to fight off the bacteria.

Keep in mind that not all ticks carry the bacteria that causes Lyme. Only 1% to 50% carry the bacteria, depending on the location.

A tick must be attached for at least 36 to 48 hours before the Lyme bacterium can be transmitted. It also takes 3 to 5 days for a tick to fill up with blood.

In summary, you don't have to worry about getting Lyme Disease from chickens—they are virtually unaffected by Lyme.