Scientists analyzed the distribution of three potentially harmful tick species in Illinois, identifying regions of the state with higher numbers of these ticks and, therefore, at greater risk of infection with multiple tick-borne diseases.
Scientists analyzed the distribution of three potentially harmful tick species in Illinois, identifying regions of the state with higher numbers of these ticks and, therefore, at greater risk of infection with multiple tick-borne diseases.
The study found that, of the three species tracked, the lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum, is most prevalent in southern Illinois; the black-legged tick or deer tick, Ixodes scapularis, is more common in northern and central Illinois; and the dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis, dominates the central and southern parts of the state. The findings, reported in the journal Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases, include clusters of counties with the highest number of ticks of each species.
All three tick species are likely present in every Illinois county, said Rebecca Smith, a pathobiology professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who led the new research with graduate student Abrar Hussain.
“There are some counties where we’ve looked and we haven’t found them, but most counties that have looked for ticks have found all three species,” Smith said. “It’s just that some ticks are more common in the south, some are more common in the north, and the dog tick does better in central Illinois, where there is a lot of grassland and open habitat.”
Read More: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Image: Abrar Hussain, left, Rebecca Smith and their colleagues mapped the distribution of three tick species across the state of Illinois. They compared this distribution to the incidence of tick-borne diseases in the state. (Credit: Photo by Fred Zwicky via University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
