KPDS ÜDS OKUMA PARÇASI - 33

A contraption that automatically fits deer with a pesticide-impregnated collar is helping to tackle the menace of Lyme disease, which is usually spread among people by ticks that live on the deer. This disease is now one of the fastest spreading infectious diseases in the US and can be fatal. Trapping and treating every deer in a forest with pesticides isn't easy, so a machine has been designed to do it. The animals are lured to a feeding tray where they have to place their heads in a V-shaped trough to get to the food. The machine keeps an open pesticide-impregnated collar at the ready, drooping next to the trough where the deer will put its neck. As the animal takes the food, its neck presses down on a switch that triggers a spring-loaded arm. This propels one end of the open collar over the neck where it meets the other end. The two ends join using Velcro, so within seconds of the animal's arrival the collar is complete.