Times Observer by Lorri Drumm The Pennsylvania Department of Health Warren location is setting up a display in various locations to raise awareness about ticks and tick-borne illnesses.

As spring approaches, state and local officials are ramping up efforts to combat ticks and illnesses they can cause.

Since July 1, 2018, a statewide surveillance program conducted by the DEP collected 3,663 adult black-legged ticks for testing — 71 of those were captured in Warren County.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced recently that it is conducting five-year environmental surveillance of ticks to assess the risk of tick-borne illnesses across the state. The project is being funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

The survey started in July 2018 in partnership with county governments. It is part of the Pennsylvania Lyme Disease Task Force recommendations for combating the increasing incidence of Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases.

City of Warren officials and staff have been doing their part to spread the word.

The City’s Board of Health has directed city staff over the past several years to post seasonal information at city parks regarding ticks and Lyme’s disease, according to Terry Williams, the city’s director of codes, permits, and recreation services.

“The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) provides free educational materials including the posters we hang on the park bulletin boards,” she said.

“The CDC also provides kid-friendly materials including a comic strip and a crossword puzzle that we distribute to the children who attend the city’s summer playground program at Beaty, Crescent and Lacy Parks,” she said. “The playground supervisors also receive information regarding ticks and Lyme disease during the training sessions.”

“Lyme disease affects thousands of Pennsylvanians every year, but ticks are also known to carry other pathogens that could infect humans. This survey will provide important data that will help us better understand these arachnids in our environment and inform Pennsylvanians on how, when and where to avoid getting bitten by a disease-carrying tick,” said DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell.

“Lyme disease is a major public health concern in Pennsylvania,” said Secretary of Health Rachel Levine. “Many people believe that Lyme Disease, and the ticks that carry the disease, can only be found in wooded areas. However, I know personally, as do many others, that ticks can be found in your backyard, where you walk your dog or the local park.”

The survey is taking place in every county in the state to track ticks’ habits, life stages, and peak activity levels and to test them for human pathogenic diseases. Additionally, 38 counties are conducting a specific survey of nymphal black-legged ticks that can transmit Lyme disease to humans.

Warren County is not one of those 38 counties, however.

Ticks are collected using white felt drags that sample low-lying ground cover and understory vegetation for questing ticks. While questing, ticks hold onto leaves and grass by their third and fourth pair of legs. They hold the first pair of legs outstretched, waiting to climb on to the host. When a host brushes the spot where a tick is waiting, it quickly climbs aboard.

Fall and winter surveillance focused on analyzing adult black-legged ticks for emerging and changing disease burdens in public use habitats across the state, such as parks, playgrounds, and recreational fields.

The spring and summer surveillance will focus on collecting three tick species; the black-legged tick in its immature nymphal stage when it most often infects humans with Lyme disease, the adult American dog tick that transmits Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Tularemia and the adult Lone Star tick that transmits Ehrlichiosis and Tularemia.

The nymphal stage of the black-legged tick causes the most tick-borne illness in the state due to its size and activity period. It is significantly smaller than the adult– about the size of a poppy seed — and consequently less likely to be discovered on the human body.

The nymphal stage of the black-legged tick’s lifespan coincides with the time many people are outdoors in the spring and summer, according to McDonnell.

“Tracking and testing them at this stage is extremely important because it will allow us to more accurately pinpoint when and where the risk of human illness is most prevalent and help prevent cases of Lyme disease in the future,” he said.