I have spent literally years lying on the couch wondering how I could be so sick and nobody was overly concerned. In the mid 80's I believe I saw an outbreak of disease that was not recognized as such because as yet we do not have the knowledge of what conditions can cause serious disease, hence, "The Silent Pandemic". The basis for this hypothesis rests on the postulation that disease has been causing the cyclic hare die-off for hundreds of years, hence, "The Regulator of the Species".

Authors note, March, 2006. It is interesting that I have never seen any research on the hare tick Haemaphysalis leporispalustris as being the cause of the cyclic hare die-off.

If I had been in charge of creating a perfect evolving world I would have put a block in place to prevent any animal from overpopulating and polluting my perfect world. My block would be a disease that is transmitted by biting insects, is contagious and highly mutable to change. I hypothesize that we share disease with nature more than commonly thought. A biting insect that can give disease can also take disease.

To sum up, I postulate that the animals harbor an as yet undiscovered disease that we share and can live with if we do not change or mutate. For those of us who have been suffering a Lyme-like illness we must remember that Lyme Disease is just a new word for an old disease because there are no new diseases in the world. Disease is opportunistic, change it, mutate it or take away it's transmission route and it will find a new infection path. So… for us who have been feeling the effects of a Lyme-like disease I postulate that we are not feeling the effects of Lyme Disease per se but rather the effects of environmental contamination of the Regulator of the Species. This could explain why there are very few rabbits left in the area where others and I became ill. I believe that this is one of those diseases that become less virulent as it is passes through different hosts and or vectors. The closer to the source, the sicker you get. This could also explain the many faces of Lyme due to regional contamination and birds vectoring the disease.

Authors note, December 29, 2007. I am happy to write down that I see hare trails in an area that I have not seen any tracks for years.The last hare I saw in this area was in the early 90's which I killed with a stick and collected about 300 ticks. This raises a good question about the well recorded 10 year cyclic hare die-off. I am not aware of any reports of ticks paraticizing the survivors of the die-off. This presents good argument that the hare ticks drive the 10 year cyclic die-off; hare ticks die off along with the hares.

Perhaps as bacteria, mycoplasma, protozoa and prions are better understood we will realize that we are no more than an evolved animal and no animal has ever survived overpopulating the world to the point of causing long term damage.