fda approved vaccine on the market, scientists think they found an alternative but controversial solution, using the power of genetic editing, specifically in a little mouse. chain of transmission starts when it bites a white footed mouse carrying lime disease. the tick gets infected, usually moves onto bite a deer where it continues to feed and reproduce, increasing the spread of ticks and the odds that you re bitten by one. some mice are immune. if we can immunize all of the mice, you can disrupt the chain of transmission. they propose hacking into the white footed mouse genetic code. any off spring would inherit lime disease immunity. that leads to less ticks infected and less humans infected. but nobody released genetically modified mammals into the wild. we don t know how it will effect the environment five years from now, ten years from now, 20 years from now.