NEW EFFORTS AND NOVEL
STRATEGIES TO REDUCE THE IMPACT OF TICKS AND TICK-BORNE DISEASE
Nathan Miller
Center for Vector-Borne Disease, University of Rhode
Island
Woodward Hall Room 14, 9 East Alumni Ave
Kingston, RI 02881
ABSTRACT
Whether you live, work or play throughout much of the
Northeastern United States you probably have had some experience with
blacklegged ticks, and perhaps, even struggled with a tick-borne disease. Despite a lengthy history of efforts to
lessen the impact of ticks and reduce disease incidence, cases of tick-borne
disease (Lyme disease, Babesiosis and Anaplasmosis) continue to increase. Traditional methods to educate individuals
and provide information about ticks and disease, brochures and current educational
programs for example, have fallen short. The Tick Encounter Resource Center at the
University of Rhode Island is taking advantage of new social marketing
strategies and health information delivery techniques to raise consciousness
towards ticks and, most importantly, stimulate people to take action and
prevent tick bites. Highlighting these
efforts are hands-on community-based workshops, linking individuals with tick
problems to people with solutions, and a novel interactive website
(www.TickEncounter.org) that provides customized information and strategies to
the user.
In addition to reinforcing existing strategies, new
technologies to mitigate tick-borne diseases are currently being evaluated. In
particular, a host-targeted device named ‘the 4-poster’ kills ticks that are
feeding on White-tailed deer, the main reproductive host of blacklegged
ticks. To date, strategies for
preventing tick bites and controlling ticks has been the responsibility of
individuals. The ‘4-poster’ is designed to reduce tick populations area-wide,
at the level of a community, or even a town.
In scientific field trials this technology has proven to reduce ticks,
yet in practice, its operation requires significant stakeholder participation
from landowners to legislative officials. This presentation will provide an
overview of this technology, its implementation in a community and the
impediments that are needed to be overcome.