NYS Ticks Tested for Lyme & Other TBD

PLOS Global Public Health (Hart, C., et al.) 6.27.22, published “Community engaged tick surveillance and tickMAP as a public health tool to track the emergence of ticks and tick-borne diseases in New York.” The article details a program that was used to acquire ticks and related information throughout New York State.

Collected ticks were differentiated and tested for several tick-borne pathogens. Of the tick samples, only I. scapularis was found to be regularly infected with pathogens of human importance, such as B. burgdorferi, B. miyamotoi, A. phagocytophilum, B. microti, and Powassan virus. The geographic and temporal distributions of tick species and pathogens were also decided which enabled the creation of tickMAP, a robust real-time mapping tool that can be used to record the emergence of ticks and tick-borne diseases.

tickMAP can be used by the public to detect emergent disease hot spots, by clinicians during differential diagnosis, and also by researchers to better comprehend influential aspects of ticks and tick-borne disease emergence in New York. Other regions can also mimic this model to provide real-time tracking and early warnings about emerging tick-borne pathogens.

For more information:

Read the article in PLOS Global Public Health.

Learn more about New York Lyme & TBD activities.