Ticks & Chickens- Can Lyme disease be passed to humans?

[SFogg]

Hello and Good Morning from Alberta, Canada!

I am originally from Nova Scotia where there is a huge tick problem happening. My father-in-law is looking to get chickens (and I may be encouraging him ) but he is concerned that when they eat ticks, and if those ticks are infected with Lyme disease, that it will be passed on to him through eating the eggs. So, I am being a good daughter-in-law and trying to find out some information for him.
Does anyone have experience in high-tick areas with chickens? His main concern is the passing of Lyme disease from the chickens who have eaten ticks (potentially infected ticks) to humans through egg consumption.

Any help/info is much appreciated!

 

[BGcoop]

Interesting question. I don’t believe lymes can be passed that way. You can easily google the transmission of lymes, it passes by having an initially infected animal (think mouse) being bitten by a young tick, which then passes the disease when it bites another animal(human). If it were easily passed without the vector of the tick I would think there would be concerns of human to human transmission (think stds) and as far as I am aware there is not. Also since you are most likely not consuming the eggs raw, the cooking would eliminate the bacteria that causes it, as well as the protective aspects of the digestive system(stomach acid, GI tract lining) providing some elements of safety from the bacteria.

 

[SFogg]

Thank you for this! I did do some Googling, but sometimes its hard to know what to believe! Everything you said makes sense!

 

[sourland]

I think that @BGcoop is right on the money on all aspects.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

Lyme disease won't be passed by eating hen eggs. Chickens won't get Lyme disease, but they can certainly serve as a host to Black-legged ticks.