Established Tick Species and Risk of Tick-borne Disease along the Platte River Corridor

Brittany Horbach Author

08/01/2021 Added

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The goal of this study is to examine the risk of tick-borne disease (TBD) along the Platte River corridor. This goal was to be achieved through assessing the occurrence and distribution of ticks, determine if the ticks were infected with TBD pathogens, and evaluate if TBD transmission is occurring through canine serology. This was a group project between Ashtin Kaumans, Brittany Horbach, and Miranda Kahn.

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[00:00:00.990]The title of our project is established tick species and the risk of tick-borne
[00:00:05.160]diseases along the Platte river corridor. My name's Ashtin Kaumans.
[00:00:09.180]My name is Brittany Horbach and I'm Miranda Khan. To start off,
[00:00:14.190]we have some background information.
[00:00:15.660]The human tick borne diseases have doubled from 2004 to 2016.
[00:00:20.490]This can be contributed from the climate change, uh, tick host,
[00:00:24.870]population growth and human mediated habitat change.
[00:00:29.750]The current established populations in Nebraska include the lone star tick, deer
[00:00:33.590]tick, and the American dog tick.
[00:00:35.900]All of these ticks are vectors of common tick-borne
[00:00:40.400]diseases.
[00:00:41.750]The non established populations include the Gulf coast ticks that have been
[00:00:45.800]found in Nebraska, but are not established.
[00:00:47.660]And the Asian Longhorned tick, cattle fever tick,
[00:00:50.390]and the red sheep tick all of these non established texts can be detrimental to
[00:00:55.010]the livestock industry as well as their health. Because the last extensive survey
[00:00:59.750]was done seven years ago.
[00:01:01.040]We do not know the established tick populations in Nebraska as of now.
[00:01:06.170]We have three different objectives for our research project.
[00:01:10.200]The first being assessing the current distribution of ticks along the
[00:01:14.930]Platte river corridor. Second evaluating if tick-borne disease,
[00:01:18.800]transmission is occurring by evaluating canine serology work.
[00:01:23.630]& third determining if ticks are infected with tick-borne disease pathogens
[00:01:28.400]this will serve as an educational tool.
[00:01:31.190]Identify densely populated tick areas for future population
[00:01:36.050]studies,
[00:01:37.160]enhanced biosecurity planning to prevent tickborne disease transmission,
[00:01:41.330]and warn physicians,
[00:01:42.560]veterinarians and public health officials about the risk of tick-borne diseases
[00:01:46.580]in the area.
[00:01:49.120]So for our collection,
[00:01:50.380]our materials are listed above and for methodology we collected at
[00:01:54.940]approximately 24 sites for a period of 10 weeks. We had a cycle of three weeks,
[00:01:59.890]which meant we collected at roughly, um, six sites a week. Um,
[00:02:04.450]that way we could replenish the sites that we went to. For every site that we
[00:02:08.200]went to, we performed the drag technique,
[00:02:10.060]this included Lang cloth on the ground and walking 25 meters after the
[00:02:14.890]25 meters, you'd examine the cloth. If there was any ticks,
[00:02:17.740]you'd place them into the ethyl alcohol vial full of alcohol.
[00:02:21.070]And at each site we'd record the number of collectors time spent collecting and
[00:02:25.060]the weather conditions in the journal. And so later on in the lab,
[00:02:28.270]we identified the species sex and life stage by notable characteristics
[00:02:33.100]using an anatomical reference book.
[00:02:37.230]For our second materials and methods.
[00:02:39.450]This is for our IDEXX 40 X snap tests that we used.
[00:02:44.010]We asked different clinics and shelters to participate in our study,
[00:02:48.060]qualified dogs. Um, we got blood samples from them.
[00:02:51.480]Qualification requirements include no travel history outside of Nebraska,
[00:02:56.790]no use of tick control products and must spend all of its time or most of
[00:03:01.720]its time outdoors. We also collected ticks from these different locations.
[00:03:08.540]The snap test procedure included allowing the components to equalize at room
[00:03:12.770]temperature for 30 minutes.
[00:03:14.120]Then we pipetted three drops of blood and four drops of conjugate to a new
[00:03:17.300]sample tube and inverted it three to five times on a new level of service.
[00:03:21.680]We added contents of the sample tube onto the snap test sample well
[00:03:25.400]once the sample first appeared in the activation circle,
[00:03:27.980]you firmly press the activator down.
[00:03:30.320]Then you read the test results in eight minutes. On the figure of the left.
[00:03:34.100]It shows the antibodies present if there are any.
[00:03:36.860]Here we show some results on our left map,
[00:03:39.950]we have the total number of ticks collected at each site on our right is our
[00:03:43.940]figure of a total capture rate of each site,
[00:03:46.400]which was calculated by doing the total amount of ticks divided by collector
[00:03:50.690]divided by time spent.
[00:03:53.920]Continuing our results in figure three,
[00:03:55.820]we have an American dog tick stage for each site, um,
[00:03:59.200]indicated by the pie charts for each location. Um,
[00:04:02.200]the pie charts are scaled so that, um,
[00:04:05.380]they're representative of the amount of ticks found at each location.
[00:04:08.470]So the bigger the pie chart, the more ticks found. Um, additionally,
[00:04:11.860]we have the figure four, which is the lone star tick stick,
[00:04:14.860]tick stages for each site. Um,
[00:04:17.200]they are also proportional to the amount of ticks found per site.
[00:04:20.710]And then for figure five, we compared these two, um,
[00:04:24.040]maps into one showing the densities of the lone star ticks compared to the
[00:04:28.660]American dog ticks.
[00:04:31.660]The incidental findings that we found were Ixodes
[00:04:34.840]dentatus was found at Platte river state park, SCHRAMM, and Czechland recreation
[00:04:38.680]center also Dermacentor was found at Carol joy Holling.
[00:04:41.170]And this species is still yet to be determined
[00:04:44.320]For our preliminary results,
[00:04:46.270]We have had three shelters participate in this study so far with a total
[00:04:51.160]of 24 dogs being tested with the 40 X snap test,
[00:04:55.540]all of which being negative. And for our third part,
[00:04:58.660]we have not tested any ticks with PCR at this
[00:05:03.520]moment in time.
[00:05:07.340]So for our discussion, um,
[00:05:08.720]some noticeable trends that we noticed at least for the collection is that we
[00:05:12.180]found more adult ticks than we did any other life stage.
[00:05:14.900]This can probably be attributed to the time of year that we are collecting,
[00:05:18.890]which is the summer. Um, additionally,
[00:05:21.050]we saw that there was more lone star nymphs than there was, uh,
[00:05:23.780]compared to the adults. We're not really sure why this trend exists,
[00:05:27.050]but it's important to note. Additionally,
[00:05:29.330]some significant findings that we saw was there was no ticks collected at River
[00:05:32.660]West. This is most likely due to the limited forested area that they have.
[00:05:37.130]Most of the grass that was there was already mowed. Um,
[00:05:40.820]and so we also found no deer ticks or Gulf coast ticks at any of our locations.
[00:05:44.780]We found this highly unusual considering, um,
[00:05:47.690]some of the locations that we went to such as Carol joy Holling had previously
[00:05:52.160]had deer ticks based on other studies, but we didn't find any in ours. Um,
[00:05:56.570]this could most likely be attributed to a cold snap in the winter, um,
[00:06:01.400]that we just had. However, this is more of a hypothesis.
[00:06:05.900]We would need more research in order to confirm this,
[00:06:08.780]but for our Gulf coast sticks, um,
[00:06:10.880]we highly think that the reason why we didn't see them is because we were mainly
[00:06:14.420]looking in, uh, forested areas.
[00:06:16.430]Whereas Gulf coast ticks primarily prefer land that is marshy or at least,
[00:06:21.020]um, farmland.
[00:06:23.920]There's also been a higher prevelance of lone star ticks on the Eastern
[00:06:27.250]collection sites, along the Platte river and Missouri river,
[00:06:30.250]we found that Adam's place had a total of 173 ticks collected Bramble had a total
[00:06:35.230]of 53 ticks and Honey Creek Iowa had a total of 93 ticks collected.
[00:06:40.090]This site was only visited once. Our findings are showing that there is both a
[00:06:44.710]human and animal health risk. Um,
[00:06:47.230]American dog ticks are actually the most common ticks found in Nebraska.
[00:06:51.280]And they are very important factors of spotted fever rickettsia,
[00:06:55.000]which is the most deadly tick-borne disease in the United States.
[00:06:59.830]Along with that lone star ticks are also vectors of the pathogens that cause
[00:07:04.240]Ehrlichia,
[00:07:07.750]we will have a better understanding of the risk once to determining the pathogen
[00:07:12.130]loads and the ticks and tick-borne disease exposure to dogs.
[00:07:18.960]So our next step would be to start diagnostic testing of TBD pathogens via
[00:07:23.280]PCR. Um,
[00:07:24.620]we also want to evaluate canine exposure to tick-borne disease pathogens via
[00:07:29.190]serology. Um, with more clinics.
[00:07:32.810]We are also going to continue collecting ticks from these locations and we are
[00:07:37.610]going to submit all of our American dog ticks to the center of disease control
[00:07:42.500]for further testing on their pathogen loads.
[00:07:47.630]We wanted to acknowledge all those who contributed to our project,
[00:07:50.570]including UCare, Dr. Roberto Cortinas,
[00:07:53.720]the Nebraska department of agriculture and all participating shelters and
[00:07:57.020]clinics.

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Established Tick Species and Risk of Tick-borne Disease along the Platte River Corridor

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