From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— Researchers with Marshfield Clinic Health System are entering the second year of an effort to study tickborne diseases in Wisconsin, including those newly introduced by ticks coming from warmer climates.
The health system’s Marshfield Clinic Research Institute is asking state residents to send in ticks they find as well as information on if they’ve ever been diagnosed with a tickborne illness, such as Lyme disease.
The institute last year launched the Tick Inventory via Citizen Science, or TICS project, which received more than 6,000 ticks in 2024 that were submitted from nearly every county in the state. Of that number, about 70% were the American dog tick, also called the wood tick. Most of the rest were the blacklegged, or deer tick, which are smaller and more likely to carry certain diseases.
Along with the most common illness they transmit, Lyme disease, deer ticks can also pass on pathogens that cause other diseases. Researchers last year identified an increase in the number of ticks coming from warmer areas, such as the lone star tick and Brown dog ticks.
“With new tick species becoming more prevalent in Wisconsin, the risk for potential newly introduced diseases increases,” MCRI Executive Director Jennifer Meece said in a statement. “We are trying to determine the extent and significance of this spread and the potential health effects.”
The institute is offering pre-paid collection kits to participants willing to send in ticks, providing them in-person at the George Mead Wildlife Area Education Center near Marshfield, Castlerock Veterinary in Marshfield and other MCHS locations. Kits containing a collected tick, either dead or alive, can be sent in by mail.
The kits include survey questions on precautions being taken against ticks, past diagnoses with related diseases and willingness to engage with the institute on possible future studies.
Meece says tickborne diseases are “complex to diagnose” and sometimes hard to treat as well.
“Having a better understanding of the people affected can better help us in future research,” she said.
See more in the release below.
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– Marshfield Clinic Health System: Research Institute seeks ticks for second year of study
