Another season of testing ticks sent in by Central New York residents to see what diseases they might be carrying is now underway at Upstate Medical University. The Professor who leads the program says ticks were active during milder winter months.
The testing lab was closed for a few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Doctor Saravanan Thangamani says people continued to send-in ticks and they froze them to test for when they reopened.
“From our tick collection… also the ticks that were received from January, February and March, it is an indication that we are in for a long tick season and also about average tick season.”
From January through early March, the lab received 350 ticks from residents. The professor says if you go walking on trails to avoid wandering off into the woods or bushy areas and to perform a self-check when returning home.
“Primarily in and around the hair, in and around the ears, under the arms, around the waist, inside the belly button and between the legs. Those are the common spots where ticks kinda like go feed-on to it.”
He also recommends running clothes through the dryer for ten minutes on high to kill ticks after a walk and showering within two hours… and to self-check daily if you are active outdoors.
A tick dashboard has been established to inform where ticks are active and the diseases. Thangamani says the information is also helpful for clinicians and patients.
“The clinicians in the area can actually look at that website and try to understand what is circulating in that county. So, if someone comes to the part with a rash or some unusual symptoms and if they know that, ok, this particular county is reporting the ticks are having a particular tick-bourne agent, then the clinician can actually put that into the differential diagnosis and then try to look for it.”
The public sent-in more than 4,000 ticks since last summer. 30 percent of ticks tested positive for carrying Lyme disease bacteria and slightly more than 35 percent had a disease carrying agent. Click here to view the dashboard on the lab’s website or to submit a tick.
