Ticks, testing & Texas
Improving surveillance for Texas's most prominent tick-borne illnesses. Updated mapping, prevention, and awareness to educate counties, government, and medical professionals in real time.
Bringing Lyme disease to the attention of Texas leaders
Improving Lyme surveillance in Texas isn't just a research problem, it's a policy one. Kristina represents Texas Lyme Alliance at the state level, working to get tick-borne illness taken seriously by the people who set public health priorities.
What the data shows
Of 1,235 tick samples collected, 109 were identified as I. scapularis. Infection with B. burgdorferi was detected in 45% of the I. scapularis ticks collected. The modeling shows a wide distribution for I. scapularis, with a higher probability of occurrence along the Gulf of Mexico coast, and predicts that suitable habitat in the Texas-Mexico transboundary region will remain relatively stable through 2050. Read the study: implications of climate change on the distribution of the tick vector Ixodes scapularis and risk for Lyme disease in the Texas-Mexico transboundary region →
Lyme in Texas is underreported given an underinformed medical environment, and traditional two-tiered testing fails 30 to 70% of the time. Preventing gestational and pediatric Lyme at the acute stage is essential to maintaining quality of life for Texas families.
The Texas Department of Health & Human Services reported 85 new Lyme infections a year as of 2020. We're working to connect the dots on whether that figure includes county-level infections, and where those numbers come from.
Lyme disease is supposed to be investigated since it appears on the "notifiable conditions" list. Each positive case, though the guidelines don't require all bands to be present, is supposed to be investigated. A Western Blot test technically requires all five bands to be classified CDC-positive, but most Lyme patients' immune systems are no longer able to mount enough of a response to show that many bands.
Kristina's sickest child had the fewest bands. This is a pattern commonly heard across the patient community. A better diagnostic, like the specialty labs veteran patients already rely on, is our best chance at improving outcomes.
Bay Area Lyme has funded over 50 projects to find better Lyme tests. The Cohen Foundation and MIT have recently funded a competition to fund the top submissions for a working test. We're on our way.
Instructions for submitting ticks for laboratory testing in Texas
The Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has partnered with the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) Tick-Borne Disease Research Laboratory to test ticks for disease agents in the Borrelia, Ehrlichia, and Rickettsia genera using molecular methods. Ticks must first be submitted to the DSHS Zoonosis Control office for identification, after which they'll be forwarded to UNTHSC for testing. There is no charge for testing. This service is available only to Texas residents submitting specimens from a Texas address, and only for ticks that were attached to a human. Ticks that weren't attached to a human, or that were received from outside of Texas, will not be tested and will not be returned to the submitter.
Test a Tick HereStudies in Texas: veterinary studies as a precursor to human maps of disease
- Prevalence of protozoan parasites in small and medium mammals in Texas, USA →
- Molecular prevalence and ecoregion distribution of select tick-borne pathogens in Texas dogs →
- Molecular identification of Ehrlichia ewingii in a polyarthritic Texas dog →
- Prevalence of common tick-borne pathogens in white-tailed deer and coyotes in south Texas →
- Searching for the immature stages of Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) in leaf litter and soil in Texas →
- Serological detection of tick-borne relapsing fever in Texan domestic dogs →
- Novel real-time PCR assays for genomic group identification of tick-borne relapsing fever species Borrelia hermsii →
- Hassan et al., Vaccine (2019): CRM and TTHc conjugates with PepB →