Is this the bioengineered weaponized tick the representative from New Jersey has made so much fuss about lately?

(INTELLIHUB) — A new, possibly engineered, tick species has popped up out of the blue and is spreading across the United States like wildfire.

The tick has been identified as “Haemaphysalis longicornus” a.k.a. the “Asian long-horned tick” and has already made its way throughout 8 northeastern states.

Director of the Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group Dr. Gregory Poland says the tick can lay up to 2000 eggs at a time which gives it the ability to rapidly reproduce.

To date, the tick has been found in Arkansas, North Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey where the tick is believed to have originated from.

Dr. Poland says that three viruses, Lyme Disease, the Bourbon Virus, and the Heart Land Virus, may all be connected to this tick.

“It makes the point that what is happening in medicine with the new biology, with new genetic kinds of testing, and ever increasingly sophisticated testing is we are recognizing more and more viruses, more and more changes in the human body related to infections, related to what kind of microbes you carry in your gut,” the doctor explained.

Could this be the Pentagon-created weaponized tick that New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith has been so concerned about?

“My amendment tasks the DOD inspector general to ask the hard questions and report back,” Smith said last Friday on the House floor. “… a number of books and articles suggesting that significant research had been done at U.S. government facilities including Fort Detrick, Maryland and Plum Island, New York to turn ticks and other insects into bioweapons” are worrisome.”

Sources:

• On its way: New, disease-carrying tick species — Post Bulletin
• House passes amendment ordering Pentagon to review whether U.S. experimented with weaponizing ticks — CBS News