Context: Moncton is built on a swamp. It has _a lot_ of mosquitoes during summer and 3 to 5 ft of snow during winter. It had (has?) the lowest home prices in all of Canada because of this. NB also has the lowest income per family (or next to lowest, Nunavut might be lower).
MS is more common in northern climates as well, but afaik it's not higher than average in NB.
Source: I have spent quite a bit of time in Moncton.
I wish we could bioengineer mosquitoes and ticks to not bite humans, and dress it up with a thin veneer of being natural so that you felt happy about it too.
Let me let you into something:
There will always be something to fear, and the more you go trying to squash every little bug the more something else will find you. You can’t escape your fear of pain and death no matter how much you think you are god and must alter the universe around you to stay “safe”.
Before meddling in the intricacies of nature for an illusion of safety, the best course is the ancient adage:
How do you feel about vaccines, for instance? They kind of interfere with nature. We ought to be infected instead, right, because it's natural?
Or do you draw a line between bacteria and insects for some reason? If the ticks are left unaltered but we eradicate the lyme disease bacteria (and the typhus bacteria, and the Q-fever bacteria, and the other seven or so diseases ticks can spread) is that alright?
You were proposing bioengineering another species of animal to limit its capacity for survival and cooperation in a complex ecosystem well beyond your capacity (or all of humanity’s capacity) of fully understanding.
That kind of hubris has ripple effects across the world that we cannot possibly predict. Like clearcutting old growth forest it’s incredibly short sighted.
Anything that pokes into one mammal and then into another might be able to transmit basically anything. This is why doctors dont reuse needles no matter the percieved risk.
MS is more common in northern climates as well, but afaik it's not higher than average in NB.
Source: I have spent quite a bit of time in Moncton.