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Medically Significant Ticks on White-Tailed Deer in Alabama

Skyler M. Kerr, et al., published “Statewide survey of medically important Ticks on White-Tailed Deerticks on white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus Zimmerman, in Alabama, U.S.A.” on October 18, 2022, in Journal of Vector Ecology*. The researchers assessed tick fauna found on deer that were located in Alabama from a state-wide study taking place during hunting seasons 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. *Vol. 47, No. 2, December 2022 issue.

The study used 151 deer heads harvested from 21 deer processing centers (n = 4-17 heads/processor) as the sample unit. Four species of ticks were found: Ixodes scapularis (n= 936, % of catch 69.1%), Amblyomma americanum (315, 23.2%), Dermacentor albipictus (97, 7.1%), and Amblyomma maculatum (6, 0.4%), with 87.7% (prevalence) of the deer heads having one or more ticks. 


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