How Community Science Is Helping Tick Surveillance in New York State

Fifty-nine New York City citizen scientists with little training collected more than 3,700 ticks in 15 counties in two weeks in the summer of 2021, and were trained by professional tick researchers at Vector’s Northeast Regional Center of Excellence. The range of activities has been greatly expanded. – Communicable disease (NEVBD). The New York State Tick Blitz is now an annual project and a model for tick monitoring programs elsewhere. NEVBD researchers trained volunteers and provided a kit of tools and materials shown here. (Photo credit: Nicole Foley)

by Carolyn Bernhardt

almost 476,000 Americans diagnosed and treated Every year with Lyme disease alone.But ticks are at least prevalent in the United States 16 diseases to humans.And over the past six years, the Tohoku region has Reported the most emergency room visits It occurs when a tick bites you anywhere in the country.

“Right now, the public health department of vector surveillance is having a really hard time figuring out how to monitor these ticks,” said Laura Ms. Dr Harrington says Life Sciences in Ithaca, New York. She says strategies such as involving local scientists can help authorities get closer to tracking ticks and the diseases they spread.

The depth and breadth of citizen science

Sampling and testing for ticks may be very necessary, but they are costly. Harrington leads a community-based science project called ‘.Tickblitz, New York‘ she says. This helped solve some of these cost issues. In 2021, Dani Blitz pilots her program to actively involve community volunteers in tick sampling, educate them about tick-borne diseases, and create a model that relies on community science to monitor tick distribution. started.

Ultimately, Tick Blitz involved 59 volunteers, sampling 164 locations in 15 counties and collecting a total of 3,759 ticks. Nicole Foley, then a master’s student at the Harrington lab, led the volunteers and provided training and materials to conduct the tick sampling for two weeks in June 2021. This project is a Foley thesis project, posted in april Journal of Medical Entomology.

Fifty-nine New York City citizen scientists with little training collected more than 3,700 ticks in 15 counties in two weeks in the summer of 2021, and were trained by professional tick researchers at Vector’s Northeast Regional Center of Excellence. The range of activities has been greatly expanded. – Contagious disease. Most of the tick specimens found by the volunteers were Asian longhorned mites (Hemaphysalis longicornis, 54 percent of the specimen). (photo courtesy Dumbab via iNaturalist, CC BY-NC 4.0)

Foley says a key advantage of Tick Blitz’s community-scientist-based model was the sheer amount of space from which samples could be taken. “We were able to cover her 15 counties, which she couldn’t do in a week with just me and seasonal staff,” she says.

Most of the tick specimens found by the volunteers were Asian longhorned mites (Hemaphysalis longicornis54 percent of the specimens), followed by American dog ticks (dermacenter variables22 percent)black-footed mites (tick scapula13 percent), and the lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum11 percent). In one county, a previously unidentified species of Asian longhorn was also found.

The research team also tested some of the collected tick specimens for pathogens. Overall, black-footed mites were found to have the highest proportion of pathogens, including those that cause Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi), anaplasmosis (Anaplasma phagocytophilum), babesiosis (babesia microti).

The researchers pooled the tick samples for testing to further save costs. “Community science doesn’t always give you the accuracy you get with sampling by trained personnel,” says Harrington. “But overall, I hope the signal from the data will hold up to the large collector sample we had.”

Some of the tick pools the researchers tested tested positive for multiple pathogens, while others tested positive for one or none. However, more than half of the tick pools tested were positive for the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, and a smaller proportion were positive for other pathogens. All 13 counties where the team collected ticks showed evidence of ticks. B. Burgdorferi and B. Mikroti. Nearly every county had ticks that tested positive. A. phagocytophyllumthree tick pools were positive for Powassan virus.

Scientists believe that the identification of new tick species and the discovery of high infection rates in ticks collected by local scientists will reduce the importance of continued tick surveillance and, in particular, the spread of tick-borne diseases. It highlights the urgent need for a rapid response strategy to New York State.

Fifty-nine New York City citizen scientists with little training collected more than 3,700 ticks in 15 counties in two weeks in the summer of 2021, and were trained by professional tick researchers at Vector’s Northeast Regional Center of Excellence. The range of activities has been greatly expanded. – Communicable disease (NEVBD). The New York State Tick Blitz is now an annual project and a model for tick monitoring programs elsewhere. Here, NEVBD entomologist Dr. Emily Mader uses a drag cloth to collect mites. (Photo courtesy of the Center for Excellence in Northeast Community Vectored Diseases)

Community participation

“Another big goal was getting the community involved, and I think that’s been very successful,” says Harrington. Participants completed a questionnaire after the experience and reported that they intended to promote the experience to others. Half of the respondents said they enjoyed participating in meaningful science.

Fifty-nine New York City citizen scientists with little training collected more than 3,700 ticks in 15 counties in two weeks in the summer of 2021, and were trained by professional tick researchers at Vector’s Northeast Regional Center of Excellence. The range of activities has been greatly expanded. – Contagious disease. The New York State Tick Blitz is now an annual project and a model for tick monitoring programs elsewhere. Volunteer Mel Evans (Photo: 2021) will participate in 2021 (Photo: Sherry Evans)

For Harrington, these findings mean that “people felt empowered by the knowledge they gained about ticks and personal protection.” It also means that outreach and education programs like Tick Blitz can help raise awareness about tick-borne disease and the role of community members in tick surveillance efforts.

Foley said researchers across the country can replicate the tick blitz model to collect prevalence data on ticks and tick-borne pathogens. But she says this approach is the most effective at detecting the presence of ticks. For more specific investigations such as phenology, community science also works “as long as you train your volunteers in the correct procedures.” She also says that repeating the project helps enhance the quality of the data collected, and she says, “It’s not ideal to do it once and then quit.”

This study was the first tick blitz conducted by the team. They also conducted his second cohort in the summer of 2022 and are now fine-tuning their approach for another cycle this summer.

“One of the big limitations we were aware of was that [in the 2021 cohort] It’s that we don’t have a quantifiable picture of what the participants have learned,” says Harrington. “We knew they were learning based on comments and feedback.” [via survey], but no quantitative data could be obtained. Had I done a before-and-after knowledge assessment, I would have figured it out. ”

She says she plans to add the step for the summer of 2023 and recommends other groups looking to conduct similar studies do the same. The team also plans to work with several New York state parks this summer to expand participation and help provide the state with tick-related data from key ecosystems.

“As far as the lack of funding to support tick surveillance is concerned, I don’t think much of the public understands how dire the situation is,” Harrington said. “And community science is definitely a useful tool.”

Carolyn Bernhardt, Massachusetts,teeth Freelance science writer and editor Based in Portland, Oregon. Email: [email protected].

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