HAVING spent my life ranching cattle in East Africa I can endorse Ray Charles' warning about Lyme’s disease, or as we knew it, tick fever (The Countryman's Weekly 08/06/08).

I know two young men who suffered from this and they seemed to recover fully after spending many weeks in hospital. This was due to excellent nursing and their levels of strength and fitness as the many weeks without physical movement for tick fever puts a tremendous strain on the heart.

An equally fit and strong lady for her 50 years was not so lucky. After a lengthy stay in hospital she was never able to play tennis again – a game she played to a very high standard – or was able to run her beef herd with the drive for which she was well known.

The chance of infected ticks being found in the UK has been increased by modern air travel. It is now possible for a traveller to pick up such a tick before boarding an aircraft in Africa and not realise it until they take that much appreciated bath after the long journey.

Some of these ticks may become engorged with blood and drop off the unsuspecting host to breed a crop of infected mites ready to attach themselves to another host, either human or animal.

As a rancher I had to dip some 3,000 head of cattle each week because to miss a dipping almost certainly put the herd at the risk of an outbreak of east coast fever. Such an outbreak would put the property in quarantine for many months and any infected cattle would certainly die.

My very comprehensive veterinary manual lists a great many other tick-borne diseases that it is to be hoped will not arrive here but, as Ray Charles implies, it could be a somewhat forlorn wish.

Dogs are particularly at risk from tick fever in Africa and constant vigilance is required for, unless a case of tick fever is identified and treated early, there is little chance of recovery.

There are several other tick-borne diseases that affect dogs and cattle and it is to be hoped they will never manifest themselves here but should the pale gums and eyelids of anaemia be noticed, or a swelling of the ear lobes on a dog, veterinary advice should be sought.

It is advisable to dip or wash dogs weekly in areas where there is a history of tick fever and, like many other people, we always carried a vaccine to inject at the first signs of infection. I’m afraid the name of this vaccine escapes me at the moment but your vet can give you more advice.

Tick fever was regarded as the dogs number one enemy, possibly causing as many deaths amongst my canines as leopard, wild pig and illegal snares combined.

Fortunately Weil's disease is not always fatal or I would not be writing this.

As Ray wrote, it affects both humans and animals and is spread by contamination from the urine of an infected animal but rats are the most common offender for they pass urine while feeding in food stores.

Should you handle a sack upon which a rat has urinated, and in many such stores it is impossible not to do so, you are in danger of infection. It is frequently spread through static or running water with the infection entering the body through cuts, grazes and the various orifices. In earlier days it was called rat bite fever.

But there is good news regarding the recovery from tick-borne diseases.

A few like-minded friends and I spent a great deal of time fishing our moorland and mountain streams and shooting duck and snipe over water and swamps. Despite the cold of some of the higher glacier-fed streams, we fished and shot bare legged, frequently up to our waist in water or mud.

Whilst knowing the apparent dangers we were treated them as the many other risks one takes for granted whilst living in the African bush and developed a feeling that such things would not happen to us.

Before the advent of more efficient drugs for its treatment in the 1950s and 1960s I was plagued by recurrent bouts of malaria. I was once suffering from a particularly unpleasant attack of fever, which did not respond to normal treatment, and my very experienced Doctor was unable to get to the bottom of the problem.

Eventually, with me finding it increasingly difficult and painful to breathe, he asked if any of my dogs had suffered from Leptospirosis. Telling him they had that and some years before it was suspected in a herd of pigs I had, he jabbed me with streptomycin and the relief was rapid.

As Ray Charles writes, the chances of such infections manifesting themselves in this country will increase. Whilst the very few cases of which I have knowledge suggest no sweeping epidemics, it is as well to take heed of Ray's advice and be vigilant.