Connecticut researchers have found a direct link between the percentage of ticks infected with disease-causing bacteria and the incidence of Lyme disease among humans in the state.
More surprisingly, the state also found that the counties whose residents submit the most ticks to the state for testing — namely New Haven and Fairfield — aren’t the ones with the highest rates of infected ticks or Lyme disease.
In a recently published study in the journal Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases, a team of researchers at the New Haven-based Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station found a strong relationship between the prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, in nymphal (or young) ticks submitted by state residents for testing, and the subsequent incidence of Lyme disease in humans across the state.
The findings were based on analysis of more than 30,000 blacklegged tick (also known as deer tick) submissions by state residents to the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station’s Tick Testing Laboratory between 2007 and 2017.
The study “really does underscore the value of the state-supported tick-testing program,” said Dr. Theodore Andreadis, director of the agricultural experiment station. “When we see a high infection rate in the ticks brought in to us, it really a good reference for what’s going on out there.”
Researchers also found that the prevalence of tick infection was greater among ticks submitted from the state’s less populous counties — Windham, Tolland and New London — than those coming from the more populous New Haven and Fairfield counties.
“The prevalence of infection is high in these areas from which we aren’t receiving a lot of ticks,” said Dr. Goudarz...
from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Study-reveals-more-information-about-Lyme-13900908.php
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