Human risk to tick encounters in the southeastern United States estimated with spatial distribution modeling.

Expanding geographic distribution and increased populations of ticks has resulted in an upsurge of human-tick encounters in the United States (US), leading to an increase in tickborne disease reporting. Limited knowledge of the broadscale spatial range of tick species is heightened by a rapidly changing environment. Therefore, we partnered with the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the Forest Service, U.

Rapid Discovery and Detection of through the Use of Passive Surveillance and Collaboration: Building a State Tick-Surveillance Network.

Between March 2019 and February 2020, Asian long-horned ticks ( Neumann, 1901) were discovered and collected for the first time in one middle and seven eastern Tennessee counties, facilitated by a newly developed passive and collaborative tick-surveillance network. Network collaborators included federal, state, county, university, and private resource personnel working with companion animals, livestock, and wildlife. Specimens were collected primarily from dogs and cattle, with initial detections of female adult stage ticks by stakeholders associated with parasitology positions (e.

Investigating the Adult Ixodid Tick Populations and Their Associated Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, and Rickettsia Bacteria at a Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Hotspot in Western Tennessee.

Ehrlichiosis and rickettsiosis are two common bacterial tick-borne diseases in the southeastern United States. Ehrlichiosis is caused by ehrlichiae transmitted by Amblyomma americanum and rickettsiosis is caused by rickettsiae transmitted by Amblyomma maculatum and Dermacentor variabilis. These ticks are common and have overlapping distributions in the region.

La Crosse Encephalitis Virus Infection in Field-Collected Aedes albopictus, Aedes japonicus, and Aedes triseriatus in Tennessee.

La Crosse virus (LACV) is a mosquito-borne virus and a major cause of pediatric encephalitis in the USA. La Crosse virus emerged in Tennessee and other states in the Appalachian region in 1997. We investigated LACV infection rates and seasonal abundances of the native mosquito vector, Aedes triseriatus, and 2 recently introduced mosquito species, Ae.

Comparative sequence analyses of La Crosse virus strain isolated from patient with fatal encephalitis, Tennessee, USA.

We characterized a La Crosse virus (LACV) isolate from the brain of a child who died of encephalitis-associated complications in eastern Tennessee, USA, during summer 2012. We compared the isolate with LACV sequences from mosquitoes collected near the child's home just after his postmortem diagnosis. In addition, we conducted phylogenetic analyses of these and other sequences derived from LACV strains representing varied temporal, geographic, and ecologic origins.

Cemeteries are effective sites for monitoring la crosse virus (LACv) and these environments may play a role in LACv infection.

La Crosse encephalitis (LAC) is the leading arboviral disease among children, and was previously limited to the upper Midwest. In 2012 nine pediatric cases of LAC occurred in eastern Tennessee, including one fatal case. In an attempt to identify sites near an active LACv infection and describe the abundance and distribution of potential LACv vectors near a fatal LAC case in the Appalachian region, we initiated an end of season study using a combination of questing and oviposition mosquito traps placed at forty-nine sites consisting of cemeteries and houses within 16 radial kilometers of two pediatric infections.