Rocky Mountain Laboratories trace roots back to a tick

HAMILTON, Mont. — From the late 1800's, through the early part of the last century, people on the west side of the Bitterroot Valley lived in fear of a deadly, mysterious illness they called "black measles."

We now know it as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

That discovery was the beginning of Rocky Mountain Laboratories, whose research is now global in scope.

With tick season now here, NBC Montana visited the lab to learn more about that research and its early days with the tick that started it all.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases oversees Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton.

It is one of the few Bio-Safety Level 4 labs in the country.

"That's a level of security training, and facilities that is restricted to very, very special kinds of viruses like the viruses that cause Ebola Virus," said Associate Director for Scientific Management, Dr. Marshall Bloom.

"The vaccine that is so effective in preventing Ebola Virus, which is now a standard element of care in parts of the world," he said, was invented by Dr. Heinz Feldmann, who is one of the scientists at RML.

RML scientists have done groundbreaking work on West Nile and Marburg viruses, as well as COVID.

The lab researches a number of infectious diseases that aren't Level-4, but are still serious threats.

Such diseases include Q fever, Salmonella, and Chronic Wasting Disease.

The lab's contributions to scientific discovery are known all over the world.

"During WWII all of the Yellow Fever vaccines, which were used on American soldiers," said Dr. Bloom, "were made right here at Rocky Mountain Labs."

"The bacteria that causes Lyme Disease ," he said, "was identified here in the early 1980's, by Willy Burgdorfer, and the people that he worked with."

But the root of all those discoveries began long before the lab was even built.

Trace it to the woods just west of the lab, across the Bitterroot River, to a tiny creature you can hardly see.

Dr. Bloom said he likes to say that " Rocky Mountain Labs was built on a tick."

That would be the Rocky Mountain Wood Tick.

More than 100-years ago, settlers on the west side were falling ill with fever, headache, and a rash they called black measles.

Many died.

"Nobody knew what caused it," said Dr. Bloom. "Nobody knew what spread it. There was no vaccine."

But in 1906, the field work of Dr. Howard Ricketts, a young pathologist from the University of Chicago, and investigator Walter King, made the connection.

"During that spring and summer of 1906,"said Ph.D. tick researcher Tom Schwan, "they discovered what was causing Spotted Fever in humans, and killing them was transmitted by the wood tick here, the Rocky Mountain Wood Tick."

In his career at RML, Dr. Schwan researched ticks and the organisms they transport.

Tom took NBC Montana to Blodgett Canyon Campground west of Hamilton.

"This spot for me," he said, " has been a really good place to collect wood ticks in the early spring."

With snow still on the ground it was too cool to drag for ticks that day.

But he said there has already been at least one instance of a tick finding its way onto a human.

It is the start of tick season, and there will likely be more tick-human connections.

Tom said Dr. Ricketts' work opened a floodgate of scientific accomplishment.

"To understand better the distribution of the tick," he said, " the biology of the tick, what animals they fed on in nature, the life cycle, and how to control it."

" The control approach was multi-faceted, " said Tom. "They would kill the rodents which were hosts for immature ticks. They would dip cattle to kill the ticks that were feeding on them. And the third approach was to develop a vaccine to protect humans from Spotted Fever."

Scientists used the old Canyon Creek Schoolhouse to develop the vaccine.

That building is now home to the Hamilton Players, a performing arts center on Ricketts Road.

Ticks were collected to feed on guinea pigs, massed produced, and ground up for a vaccine.

The disease, caused by a bacterium, was named after Dr. Ricketts.

"It was an organism," said Tom, " now known as Rickettsiaceae Rickettsiales."

"People who were vaccinated became either protected, or they got infected, and they had a less severe disease," he said. " It greatly reduced the mortality rate."

By 1928, the new lab was built on Hamilton's south end.

Dr. Bloom showed us a photo of people lined up to get vaccinated at the Darby Clubhouse.

"We don't use that vaccine anymore," said Dr. Bloom, " because we now know it's a bacterial infection, and you can treat it with antibiotics."

People who contract Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever today can still get very sick, and even die.

They need to seek medical help immediately.

But antibiotic treatment has been largely effective.

"If it's caught early," said Dr. Bloom, " and people are careful enough to remember I got bit by a tick two or three weeks ago, and tell their health care provider about that."

RML scientists contributed to discoveries that Rocky Mountain Wood Ticks also transmit the Colorado Tick Fever virus, Tularemia, Q fever and Tick Paralysis.

Dr. Schwann himself, characterized the first outbreak of tick borne Relapsing fever on Wild Horse Island.

Dr. Ricketts would die in 1910 by contracting Typhus, the disease he was researching in Mexico,

Dr. Bloom said the lab has come a long way since Dr. Rickett's days.

He described a photo of the young scientist working at his lab in Mexico.

"He's sitting at a table," he said. " He's wearing a vest, a tie and a fedora looking through a microscope."

Compare that to another photograph hanging on the wall.

That photo is of the Bio-Safety Level 4 Lab at Rocky Mountain Laboratories today.

"They're all wearing these positive pressure spacesuits," observed Marshall. "They're constantly being fed compressed air. All the work that we do that involves the infectious agent is done in a biological safety cabinet."

It's the legacy of that little Rocky Mountain Wood Tick that makes its appearance every spring.