Male Ticks Give Females Engorgement Protein
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Canadian scientists said Monday that mating can make certain female ticks blow up to 100 times their virginal size. And it’s the male ticks who are to blame for this weight gain, the researchers report in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The males’ seminal fluid contains an engorgement factor protein that acts as a signal to consume a large amount of blood.
Reuben Kaufman of the University of Alberta said his team hoped to make a vaccine against the protein, called voraxin, that would protect cattle against the ticks.
