Not just Lyme: 22% of blacklegged ticks collected on Long Island carry multiple pathogens

Researchers collected three species of ticks from multiple locations in Suffolk County, Long Island, and identified a high prevalence of polymicrobial infections capable of causing human disease. More than half of Ixodes scapularis — or blacklegged — ticks carried Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease, and almost a quarter were infected with more than one pathogen. Researchers also found that the lone star tick, an aggressive species more commonly found in the South, had expanded its range in the county. “In New York State, the Ixodes ticks have steadily moved north along the Hudson Valley. The most impressive invasion has been that of the lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum, whose expansion northward has been documented in several studies, including ours in Long Island,” Jorge L. Benach, PhD, Distinguished Toll Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and Pathology in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, told Infectious Disease News. “That the...