I have seen many articles about Maine Moose being tick infested. So infested, it's killing the herd. 100,000 ticks on each Moose. Not sure I would want to eat a Lyme disease Moose.
Totally different species of tick that does not carry Lyme disease.
They did tick counts on my NH moose (they found like 40 ticks after brushing four 4"x4" sections of hide) they didn't do a tick count on my Maine moose. Both moose were in great condition with no bald spots on their hides.
The tick issues are impacting primarily calves, causing them to go through winter in a weakened condition.
My Maine bull was healthy & delicious. It's a different species of tick and unrelated to Lyme disease
Northern Maine moose numbers are doing very well. Southern Maine, NH, VT have the tick related issues
It's a winter tick. Whole new ball game. It's several places, not just Maine. When I worked in the wildlife lab in ND, we would get moose in for necropsies from the turtle mountain region that were literally covered in ticks. Every single inch of their body with the majority of hair missing. Most of the ones we had reported to us were adults. I believe they can also be blamed for the sharp decline in moose in Minnesota as well.
I've been saying for a while this issue isn't taken nearly seriously enough with the way people move pets across borders. I think it's only a matter of time until they're introduced in places like southcentral AK and southern BC by tourists.
Been guiding in Northern Maine for 7 years and have noticed fewer winter kills from ticks the past two winters. It's unclear if this is due to lower moose densities, or less infestation from ticks., but it has been encouraging to see,