The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station has released findings from its active tick surveillance program.
Dr. Megan Linske, a vector ecologist with the station, said she's seen changes in new tick species since the program began five years ago.
“A few notable ones are lone star and longhorn ticks,” Linske said. “The lone star tick is native to the United States but typically is more of a southeastern species and has kind of climbed its way up to the northeast, and it’s not only surviving up here, but thriving up here.”
“For the longhorn tick, this is an exotic introduced species. We don’t know exactly how it got here, but it’s typically a livestock species, so they wonder maybe that was a mode of transmission, and it’s been surviving in pretty good numbers throughout much of the northeast, but in Connecticut specifically.”
Linske said black-legged, or deer ticks, remain the most prevalent in Connecticut. It’s responsible for Lyme disease infections.
She also said it takes time for a human to catch a disease from a tick.
“Twenty-four to 48 hours is about what we say how long it takes for you to have a pathogen pass from a tick to the host, in this case a person,” Linske said. “So, usually if they haven’t been on that long, you’re good. That being said, that applies to all the major pathogens. However, there is one called Powassan virus, which is contained in the mouth parts of the tick. And so that means it can be transferred a lot more quickly, so about 15 minutes.”
Recent study results from the CAES show that less than one percent of ticks in the state carried the Powassan virus. Their report showed that the most prevalent disease-carrying tick is still the black-legged or deer tick, which can pass on Lyme disease.
Linske said milder winters have made the tick season almost year-round — so it’s already time to start checking for ticks.
