Tick Surveillance and Control
A recent publication “A Survey of Tick Surveillance and Control Practices in the United States” by Mader et al. highlights the collaborative work between multiple CDC Centers of Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases and the need for a comprehensive tick strategy in the United States. The work from this study has been highlighted by the Emerging Pathogens Institute (EPI) and Entomology Today. You can read the full article here.
The director of our Southeastern Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases (SECVBD), Dr. Rhoel Dinglasan is featured in the EPI article describing the successes of the tick team at SEVBD, “Our center’s tick program has addressed the basic gaps in knowledge and training infrastructure in tick-borne disease research in the Southeast.” Dr. Dinglasan continues to discuss the great training opportunities through SEVBD, “We are proud of the training we’ve accomplished over the past three years,” says Dinglasan. “And we will continue to train the next generation of public health entomologists in these interdisciplinary approaches to ensure that we remain in front of the problem of tick-borne diseases.”
Representing SECVBD in the project, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Claudia Ganser, supervised by Dr. Greg Glass, surveyed throughout Florida tracking down different tick species for this study. Dr. Ganser was also interviewed by EPI about the project, “The idea behind this project was to take inventory of what we know, to gather what information exists in the regions that have ticks, and to identify the gaps in making things more uniform.” Dr. Ganser has completed several tick surveys throughout Florida and has provided us with these highlights from her fieldwork.
