Iowa lyme disease surveillance program

This chart shows the relative size of the three most commonly encountered ticks in Iowa and Illinois. At present, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever are the two most-common diseases transmitted by ticks, but the number of diseases is increasing.

As temperatures warm and people begin spending more time outdoors, the risk of getting bit by a disease-carrying tick increases. Beth Gilliam, coordinator of an Illinois program called I-Tick, doesn't mean to alarm people, but there are 10 times as many tick-borne cases reported in Illinois today as there were in That is, if there were 20 then, today there are The numbers are similar in Iowa, she added. The two most common are Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Are ticks moving into areas where they haven't lived before? Is vegetation changing, thereby creating more favorable habitat? Are new tick-borne pathogens being discovered? To gather data that might help provide answers, Gilliam is coordinating a University of Illinois Extension program in which people throughout the state — specifically those who spend time outside — are being asked to participate in a tick surveillance program.

Gilliam will conduct a training session for volunteers at 2 p. Tuesday at the Milan Extension office, W. Participants will be asked to keep a record for five days during a two-week period about the ticks they find on themselves, and to collect and return those ticks to the Milan office.

The ticks and data will be sent to the University of Illinois for evaluation and to become part of the state record. The Quad-City region is a good place for surveillance because ticks are "pretty heavily" established in the area that includes Rock Island, Henry, Mercer and Whiteside counties, Gilliam said.

Ticks also are established in the Quad-City area of eastern Iowa, and a lyme disease surveillance program was founded in at Iowa State University, Ames, to respond to growing concern about the disease. Not every tick one encounters carries pathogens, Gilliam noted. And even if a a tick carries a particular pathogen, that does not mean a person will become infected or sick.

But it pays for people to be wary. The two most common are Lyme, named after Old Lyme, Connecticut, where some of the first cases in the United States were documented, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. In Iowa, there were cases of Lyme disease and 17 cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever reported in , according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. Of those, 14 of the Lyme disease cases were from Scott County.

No reports of Rocky Mountain spotted fever were filed for Scott County. In Illinois, there were cases of Lyme disease and 68 cases of Rocky Mountain spotted fever reported in , the latest year for which numbers are available, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. No cases of either disease were reported in Rock Island County, according to the state health department.

Lyme: Typical symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic skin rash that can look like a bull's eye. When you find a tick, wrap it in tissue, add a blade of grass, and seal it in a plastic bag. Fill out this FORM , or provide your name and information about your tick encounter including, for example: where you found the tick geographic location, on yourself or a pet , and whether or not it was attached to a human or animal.

What is it? How do you get Lyme disease? The symptoms Early stage symptoms that could be a sign of Lyme disease include muscle and joint aches, headache, fever, chills, fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, and rashes. Tests and treatment for Lyme disease If you think you may have Lyme disease, contact your health care professional right away. Avoiding Lyme disease There are plenty of things you can do to avoid Lyme disease including: Avoid wooded, brushy, and grassy areas Wear light-colored clothing so you can detect ticks easily Wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts to cover your body Wear a hat for extra protection Walk in the center of trails to avoid brush and grass Do a careful body check for ticks after being outdoors Carefully remove any ticks immediately by grabbing them with a tweezer and pulling straight out; then disinfect the area with soap and water Know when to seek care.

Publications Oliver, J. Distribution, range expansion, and infection status of 3 species of ticks in Iowa. April, Landscape, demographic, entomological, and climatic associations with human disease incidence of West Nile virus in the state of Iowa, USA.

Int J Health Geogr. Oliver, J. A web-based relational database for monitoring and analyzing mosquito population dynamics. Mosquitoes were monitored using traps that measure population dynamics, or to provide mosquitoes to be tested for mosquito-borne viruses. A total of pools representing 6, mosquitoes were tested and 5 of the pools tested positive for West Nile virus. A total of ticks were collected and processed via active surveillance in An additional ticks were submitted to our lab for identification via the passive surveillance program; from this, Ixodes scapularis were processed, 20 tested positive for Borrelia burgdorferi.

Events: Lab members attended and presented at two scientific conferences in Two trainees presented work on this project at the Society of Vector Ecology meeting, and a trainee and the PI presented at the Illinois Mosquito and Vector Control Association meeting. Services: All data from mosquito and tick surveillance are presented on the laboratory website. Mosquito and mosquito-borne disease data also are communicated directly to participating local public and environmental health agencies.

Participants are provided with mosquito numbers weekly , and notification of positive samples from mosquito and sentinel chicken testing. This year, additional consulting was provided in regards to: 1 the introduction of a new mosquito species, 2 an excessive amount of rainfall that resulted in a sharp increase in the number of mosquitoes, 3 the biological differences between nuisance and vector mosquito species and how to best describe those differences to the general public, 4 a sharp increase in the number of Culex tarsalis--a mosquito that is particularly important in transmission of West Nile virus.

This website was the subject of two presentations at scientific conferences, and is the subject of a manuscript in-review. Furthermore, this project facilitated collaborative efforts between Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa and the Illinois Natural History survey, resulting in a multi-partner grant application to explore the ecology of West Nile virus in Midwestern states, and a manuscript in preparation in collaboration with the University of Northern Iowa.

Dissemination of results has been achieved: 1 via the internet at the laboratory website and new website on mosquito population dynamics, and 2 to participants in mosquito surveillance via direct email and phone conversations. Additional data on ticks were published and are disseminated by the ISU Extension Communications office. Jon Oliver: graduate student, active and passive surveillance for ticks, frequently consulted with members of target audiences, prepared manuscript published by Extension Communications to teach people about ticks and tick-borne diseases in Iowa.

Erica Hellmich: graduate student, participated in mosquito identification, processing, and testing for viruses. Grishma Parikh: graduate student, participated in design and validation of assays for virus testing.

Brendan Dunphy, Patrick Jennings, Daniel Au, Brianne Simonsen: hourly employee, collected, identified, processed mosquitoes and entered data. Partner organizations: Iowa Department of Public Health provides funding and coordinates program , local public and environmental health agencies collect and ship samples , University of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory processes sentinel chicken samples , Sparboe Egg donated chickens , Research and Demonstration farms operate mosquito traps.

Training was provided to hourly employees, graduate students who developed the mosquito website, and to local public health agencies who learned to operate new trap types.

Impacts A change in knowledge: New information was collected in to change our knowledge of the diversity of mosquito species in Iowa. A new species of mosquito, Aedes japonicus, was collected, identified, and its numbers analyzed in terms of seasonality and distribution.

A change in actions: Knowledge gained from mosquito surveillance was implemented for insecticidal control of the mosquito, Culex tarsalis, in at least one participating county. Information gained from testing mosquitoes and sentinel chickens for evidence of virus activity was translated into press releases in participating counties with recommendations that the public take precautions to prevent mosquito bites. The site allows us to look at overall numbers of mosquitoes in the context of space and time, and in a comparative manner, such that we better understand the ecology of mosquito species in the state.

Furthermore, development of this project has significantly streamlined the procedure of reporting mosquito data to participants in mosquito surveillance. Personnel send out a weekly email that details hyperlinks that point to each county's specific data. Reporting previously entailed production of a weekly report tables, charts, and verbal summary, produced with two types of software, then converted to pdf format prepared for each county. The streamlined process allows personnel allocate time much more efficiently.

Ticks and tick-borne diseases in Iowa. Net: cyber-infrastructure for monitoring and analyzing mosquito population dynamics. Oliver, J and Bartholomay, LC. October, Poster presentation. November, Oral presentation. First prize, student competition.

Ovipositional traps are used to monitor and approximate environmental abundance of Culex species each of which plays some role in the epidemiology of West Nile and other mosquito-borne viruses populations in Iowa.

The declining number of egg rafts from is mirrored in declining adult Culex mosquito populations during the same time period. Adult Mosquito Population Dynamics. During the course of the mosquito season, 26, adult mosquitoes were identified from NJLT collections. The next, critical layer of information is whether or not these mosquitoes are infected with a mosquito-borne virus.

Virus Monitoring in Mosquitoes. A total of 16, 49, in mosquitoes were processed from CDC and gravid traps in CO2-baited CDC traps ran for a total of nights in as compared to nights in Gravid traps ran for multiple night periods during the mosquito season in both and Therefore, in , an overall reduction in the number of active mosquitoes was evident by all collection methods.