Traditionally, pathogen distribution and prevalence have been monitored through case reports or scientific collections of ticks or reservoir hosts, both of which have challenges that impact the extent, availability, and accuracy of these data. These shifts have significantly increased the need for accurate portrayal of real-time pathogen distributions and prevalence in hopes of stemming increases in human morbidity.

There is always more to learn.Tick-borne diseases have expanded over the last 2 decades as a result of shifts in tick and pathogen distributions. To learn more ways to be a part of the collective protection community give us a call. Even as the citizen, as the everyday person, we have as much to offer as we have to learn. “It’s a great example of using citizen science to ask questions about the ecology of infectious disease….that’s the power of science, I really believe that scientific research shouldn’t be just for scientists,” Walter says.Įvery day there is more to learn and more is learned. Mosquito Squad of Franklin & Framingham brings it to you because we know our clients, our families, share in the desire to learn and help just as those that participated in this study did. Katharine Walter, an epidemiologist at Stanford University who has studied tick-borne disease but did not participate in this study, believes that this kind of project on a bigger scale could give real insight into disease, climate change, and human impact on the environment. Without the help of the everyday man, these are the types of things that are difficult to discover. They found Lone Star ticks, expected to live mostly in the southeast, from Maine all the way across to California. They found ticks capable of carrying Lyme disease in 83 counties that had never recorded Lyme before. They found that they received some ticks that were simply rare, though not disease carrying. Within this process, they found a few really interesting things. They then sent the report back to the person that submitted the tick. When the ticks were sent to the lab they identified the type of tick and tested for 4 different pathogens, including Lyme disease.

He believes that more tests like this could help improve the understanding of the tick-borne diseases, how long it takes people to get sick, and even be predictive of future tick seasons. It shows the risks in real life and real time.

It also brought some things that were unexpected.įor Nieto, this study was to show how using the everyday man could help fill in the gaps that scientists couldn’t cover. This real life study brought more of that information to the table. What a wealth of information! But why ask for this when scientists survey ticks all over the country all the time? According to Nieto, science can study ticks in their local habitat, but it doesn’t necessarily answer which ticks bite humans, how many people get sick from bites, or risk potential of infection. He expected to receive about 2,400, but instead, he received 16,000 ticks, from 49 states and Puerto Rico. He could test the ticks and would send information and a pathology report back to the sender if necessary. Between August of 2016 and January of 2017, Nieto asked the public to send any tick that they pulled off of themselves into his lab at NAU. PLOS One just released a new tick study done by Nathan Nieto, a microbiologist at the North Arizona University, and he could never have done it without a large group of interested and concerned citizens.

Nieto lab tick testing