A compound found in donkey shoes could be the key to maintaining the ticks – and the diseases they carry – at bay, according to new research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Scientists say that this natural solution competes with traditional repellents and could offer safer protection to people and pets. People generally rely on chemical tick repellents like Deet and Permethrine, but “there is a strong public desire for natural means of killing and repelling,” says microbiologist Umass Amherst Stephen Rich Phys.org.
The new study published in Plos aAnd co-written by four secondary students who have designed and organized key experiences as part of a 2023 summer program, highlights a compound known as (e) -2-octenal, which is secreted by the skin of donkeys. This substance seems to effectively keep ticks from adult deer, species that bit the most frequent ticks in the United States, known to spread bacterial infections, including Lyme disease.
The research team, led by the doctoral student Eric Siegel, discovered that the compounds in donkey make their scent unattractive for ticks and that ticks nourishing horses, but not donkeys, are repulsed by the compound when he is applied to horses, by Mass. More specifically, Ocsal has been shown in laboratory tests as being as good or better as the deet to repel ticks and worked particularly well against men. The team now strives to develop a tick repellent for people and animals that take advantage of this natural compound. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
