As tick numbers show no sign of decreasing and the types of diseases they can spread to people keep increasing, a new initiative has been launched to figure out other ways we can respond beyond tucking our pants into our socks when walking through tall grass.
UNH on Thursday announced an $8 million grant from the National Science Foundation for the university to launch a statewide research and education initiative focused on ticks, the diseases they carry, and their impact on people, wildlife and the environment.
The effort, given the mouthful of an acronym, EMBEDDEd-NH (Endeavor for Multi-Omics-Based Exploration, Data-Driven Modeling, and Education in New Hampshire), comes as New Hampshire consistently ranks among the states with the highest incidence of Lyme disease, the most common tick-borne disease in the Northeast.
“By combining cutting-edge science with statewide collaboration and education, we have an opportunity to build knowledge that benefits both our state and the broader scientific community,” said Dr. David Needle, clinical professor of molecular, cellular and biomedical Sciences and senior veterinary pathologist of the New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at UNH.
This comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says emergency room visits for tick bites in April were the highest for that time of year since 2017. Health officials are increasingly concerned about the emergence of new pathogens and the spread of additional tick species into the region.
New England has seen that with the continuing increase in Powassan virus spread by ticks, which has contributed to the death of at least one person in the state this year, as well as the arrival in southern New England of the Lone Star tick, which is moving north as climate change makes winters milder and summers hotter.
Recent research shows that ticks are also showing up more in cities along the East Coast, not just in wooded areas. Warmer winters, changing land use, shifting wildlife populations and expanding human development have all contributed.
Work is proceeding on a human vaccine for Lyme disease, although one is still years away and would not do anything about other diseases spread by ticks.
Health officials have long said that the best response to ticks is to avoid getting bitten. When outdoors in tick territory, wearing long-sleeve shirts and long pants tucked into your socks so ticks can’t crawl up your leg is an important first step. Ticks grab onto people as they walk past; they do not drop down from trees because they have terrible vision and don’t know you’re around unless they feel vibrations from your walking. However, they can crawl very quickly once they get on you, which is how they end up in our hair.
Other prevention measures include putting tick insecticide such as permethrin on clothing — not directly on skin — and checking yourself very carefully for ticks after you come indoors, especially in spring and fall when they are most active.
The UNH initiative will focus on blacklegged ticks, also called deer ticks, which are the major spreader of disease to humans; the American dog tick; and the winter tick, which doesn’t bother people but has exploded in numbers and is threatening the region’s moose population.
Needle is leading the four-year study that includes experts in genomics, ecology, and artificial intelligence, as well as an opportunity for undergraduate involvement. Researchers plan to investigate how ticks survive, spread, and transmit disease by using genomic sequencing, microbiome analysis, environmental monitoring, ecological modeling, and machine learning. They will examine how climate, habitat, wildlife hosts, and microbial communities influence tick biology and pathogen transmission across New Hampshire’s ecosystems.
“Ticks are more than just disease vectors,” Needle said. “They have wide roles as parasites, prey, and hosts of diverse microbes.”
The initiative will include researchers, students, and community partners from the University of New Hampshire, Keene State College, Plymouth State University, state agencies, and industry collaborators. The initiative also places a major emphasis on education and workforce development.
UNH also offers tick testing to the public through UNH Extension. The service can detect the presence of a pathogen in a tick in as little as three days. For more information, go to unh.how/tick.
EMBEDDed-NH is supported by funding from the National Science Foundation’s EPSCoR E-RISE program, which supports statewide research infrastructure, workforce development, and collaborative scientific innovation in emerging research areas.
