Did the US military experiment with weaponised ticks?

The US House of Representatives has passed an amendment ordering an investigation into whether the Department of Defense experimented with insects as biological weapons.

The amendment, proposed by Republican Chris Smith, was approved by a voice vote in the House owing to its wide support from both parties, and added to a larger defence spending bill.

The vote comes after years of allegations that US Cold War military scientists infected ticks with diseases and that the experiment resulted in the accidental spread of Lyme disease.

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What is Lyme disease?

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that is passed to humans by tick bites.

Typical symptoms include muscle aches, joint pain, skin rash and facial paralysis. If left untreated, the infection can spread throughout the nervous system and to the heart.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that an estimated 300,000 people in the US may get Lyme disease each year.

About 10-20% of those continue to suffer chronic symptoms even after treatment, according to Congressman Smith.

Why was the amendment proposed?

Smith said the amendment was inspired by “a number of books and articles suggesting that significant research had been done at US government facilities including Fort Detrick, Maryland, and Plum Island, New York, to turn ticks and other insects into bioweapons” between 1950 and 1975.

Throughout the Cold War, the US “heavily invested” in researching biological warfare agents, until President Nixon banned such practice in 1969, reports IFLScience

A new book on the topic was published in May by Stanford University science writer and Lyme disease sufferer Kris Newby. Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons raises questions about the origins of the disease, citing the theory of former US military scientist Willy Burgdorfer that Lyme disease is the result of a “military experiment that had gone wrong”, The Guardian reports.

Swiss-born Burgdorfer, who died five years ago, was a bioweapons researcher tasked with breeding ticks, mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects to spread human diseases.

Uninfected insects were released in residential areas in the US to trace how they would spread. It has been claimed that ticks contaminated with Lyme disease bacteria were also released, unintentionally or otherwise, spreading the disease around the US.

“If true, what were the parameters of the program? Who ordered it?” Congressman Smith said during a debate discussing the amendment. “Was there any accidental release anywhere or at any time of any of the diseased ticks?”

“I believe Americans have a right to know whether any of this is true,” he said.

What happens next?

If passed by the Senate, the amendment will instruct the defence department’s inspector general to conduct a review into the claims.

Should the Pentagon’s investigation find the allegations to be true, the amendment calls for further information on the scope of the experiment.

Smith “hopes that knowledge could lead not only to accountability but also a potential cure and greater recognition of the disease”, Asbury Park Press reports.

He has already authored the TICK (Ticks: Identify, Control, Knockout) Act introduced earlier this year, which would create a national strategy to fight Lyme disease with an additional $180m (£160.5m) in funding over six years to boost research, prevention and treatment programmes, according to Smith’s website.