Black-legged Ticks -- Emerging Disease Threat (Lyme Disease)

Cases have now been reported in both Michigan's upper and lower peninsula and are increasing. It is anticipated that the number of cases reported will continue to increase due to public and medical personnel education, and expanding tick ranges.  It is always prudent, to use precautions when recreating in wooded areas.  Over the counter products containing DEET or permethrins ARE EFFECTIVE against ticks.

Since its discovery in the early 1980's, Lyme disease has become the most reported vector-borne disease in the United States.  In 2000, approximately 16,000 cases were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  This increase in cases is due to many factors, including (but not limited to):

• Increased surveillance and understanding of the disease system
• The movement of people out of cities into more rural environments brings them into close proximity with the preferred habitat of the black-legged tick
• Forest fragmentation and increasing deer populations
• Dispersal of the black-legged tick into new, receptive habitats

Lyme disease is now endemic (prevalent) in the Northeast and much of the North Central United States including Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania.  Lyme disease is also endemic in the Northwest United States, being vectored by Ixodes pacificus, the western black-legged tick. Historically, the only endemic region in Michigan has been Menominee County in the Upper Peninsula, bordering a highly endemic region of Wisconsin.  Recently, however, populations of infected black-legged ticks have been found in Western Lower Michigan.

http://www.michigan.gov/emergingdiseases/0,4579,7-186-25890-75866--,00.html