New Hudson Valley study shows ticks carrying more than one pathogen on the rise

HVNY News + Notes

Mar 16

Written By HVNY

More than a third of young ticks were carrying at least one pathogen

Nymphal tick with a pencil for scale. *Credit: Kelly Oggenfuss/Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies*

While getting the paper the other morning, a neighbor walking her dog down the road shouted how beautiful the weather has been finally, “but the ticks!”

Any dog owner, or person who spends a smidge of time outside in the Hudson Valley, knows that when the weather warms up, pants get tucked into socks, because it is officially tick season.

And, according to a new report from researchers at the Cary Institute of Ecosystems in Millbrook, “tick-borne diseases are on the rise in the northern United States, with many ticks carrying more than one pathogen.”

Over the past nine years, Cary Institute disease ecologist Shannon LaDeau studied more than 2,000 blacklegged ticks collected from the Cary Institute campus in Millbrook. Of the thousands of ticks that were collected between 2014 and 2022, roughly 1 in 10 tested positive for at least two disease-causing pathogens. More than 38-percent of the ticks tested were capable of spreading at least one disease-causing pathogen to people.

“Overall, it’s a concerning co-infection rate that has been increasing over time,” LaDeau noted.

Most commonly found together were Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, and Babesia microti, a parasite that causes a malaria-like disease known as babesiosis.

LaDeau said health providers should test for both pathogens after a patient shows signs of illness from a tick bite to ensure proper diagnosis, since the two diseases require different treatments.

“The probability of being exposed to a pathogen by a single bite from a nymphal tick is approaching 40-percent," said coauthor Richard Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at Cary Institute who has been studying tick-borne diseases for decades. “That seems uncomfortably high. These ticks are so small, most people don’t even realize when one is feeding on them.”

The results researchers uncovered at the Cary Institute campus reflects results submitted by the public to the Upstate Tick Testing Laboratory at SUNY Upstate Medical University.

For people spending time outdoors in the Northeast, as a general rule, if the ground is not freezing, it’s a good idea to take precautions to avoid tick bites,” LaDeau concluded. “Prevention is key.”