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Medical Entomology |
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Mosquito and Mosquito-Borne Disease SurveillanceEvery year, the ISU Medical Entomology Research Laboratory, in a cooperative project with the Iowa Department of Public Health and the University Hygienic Lab (Iowa City, IA), monitors mosquito populations and mosquito-borne disease in the state of Iowa. The 2007 surveillance season extended from May until October. Mosquito population data for 2007 (and all other years since the inception of the surveillance program) can be viewed on our new website, www.iowa-mosquito.net. The activity of West Nile virus (WNV), the most significant mosquito-borne virus in Iowa, for 2007 and previous years is shown below in a table indicating the number of positive cases of humans, sentinel chickens, horses, and wild mosquitoes. Of the 30 human cases of WNV this year, 2 of them resulted in death. Also found WNV-positive were 18 sentinel chickens and 10 horses. Of the 289 pools of mosquitoes that were tested, 5 pools were WNV-positive.  WNV summary 2007
Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases in IowaPress release as seen on http://www.extension.iastate.edu/news/2007/jun/070501.htm6/13/2007AMES, Iowa -- You may not see them, but millions of blood-thirsty creatures are lurking in the tall grass and brush around Iowa. They spend their days waiting to ambush an unsuspecting animal, grab on and take their next meal. They are ticks. Lyric Bartholomay, assistant professor, Iowa State University (ISU) Department of Entomology, directs the Iowa Lyme Disease Surveillance Program (LDSP), an operation that will gladly accept your tick and let you know what species you've found. So far this year, the LDSP staff members have received hundreds of tick submissions and they're hoping to see many more. Most people who send in a tick want to know if theirs is the dreaded blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, formerly known as the deer tick. This spider-like creature, sometimes no bigger than the head of a pin, can transmit the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. Forty percent of the ticks sent to the LDSP this year have been blacklegged ticks. For more information on the ticks collected this year, see http://www.ent.iastate.edu/medent/ticksurvey2007. Bartholomay, along with Jon Oliver, graduate student, Department of Entomology , Ken Holscher, associate professor, Department of Entomology, and Joel Hutcheson, entomologist, USDA, used the information from 17 years of LDSP tick surveillance to write Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases in Iowa. The goal of this publication is to help Iowans better understand what types of ticks and tick-transmitted diseases are present in the state. The publication offers information on the three most common ticks found in Iowa, the time of year they are active and the types of disease that ticks can transmit to humans and animals. Plus, it offers advice on how to avoid getting a tick bite and how to effectively remove a tick, if one should attach itself to you or your pet. Ticks and Tick-Borne Disease SurveillancePrevention is the key to controlling infection with Lyme Disease. The Medical Entomology laboratory coordinates a surveillance project that was designed to inform us of where one might encounter blacklegged ticks (a.k.a. deer ticks) (Ixodes scapularis)in the state of Iowa. These are the ticks that can transmit the bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, that causes Lyme Disease. In addition, the project aims to determine if ticks in those regions are infected with the Lyme Disease bacterium, because the risk of contracting Lyme disease is strongly associated with the presence and number of these ticks and the proportion of those that carry B. burgdorferi.  11 blacklegged tick samples have been submitted to the ISU medical entomology laboratory from counties around the state. October through November represent the second seasonal peak of adult blacklegged ticks in Iowa, and they are very abundant right now. The pie charts on the map above indicate the proportion of the three major tick species sent in from each county. Red denotes the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis), yellow-the dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) and blue-the lonestar tick (Amblyomma americanum). The total number of ticks submitted from each county is indicated by the size of the pie chart. Black-legged ticks that are submitted are tested for the presence of the bacterium that causes Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi). B. burgdorferi positive samples have been identified in 0 counties (shown in grey) thus far in 2008. Many thanks are due to those of you who have contributed specimens. This very important project is supported by the Iowa Department of Public Health. Tick testing takes place in the University Hygienic Lab (Iowa City, IA). For more information about ticks in Iowa, please see the "Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases in Iowa" pamphlet recently published through University Extension.
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