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Community Corner

More Ticks in More Places: The Ever-Changing Ecology of Ticks and Disease in the Northeastern USA

This event is Free and Open to the Public!  

Doors open at 7pm for socializing
Lecture starts at 7:30 pm

 

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In the northeastern United States, there is a clear trend over the past decade or longer of finding "more ticks in more places". Deer ticks, loaded with pathogens are not just encountered deep in the forest ... they're where you and your pets go every day. Big, ugly American dog ticks seem to be making a bit of a comeback, and lone star ticks are spreading in New England. We  hypothesize that dynamic ecological and social factors are contributing synergistically to increase tick encounters, and the severity of the public and veterinary health threat. Moreover, with such a changing tick encounter  "game" underway, there is a critical need for new "rules" - knowledge, products, and practiced behaviors - to support people in making appropriate decisions on preventing tick bitesand tick-transmitted diseases. This presentation suggests why there may be more ticks in more places today than ever before, and introduces the audience to the new "rules" and decision support products needed to stay tick bite safe and healthy.        

 

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Often referred to as the 'tick guy from URI', Dr. Thomas Mather is professor of public health, entomology and zoonotic diseases at the University of Rhode Island. He is director of URI's Center for Vector-Borne Disease and its TickEncounter Resource Center. His research interests include the ecology of blood-sucking arthropods and the dynamics of tick-transmitted diseases. He has raised more than $11  million to support tick-borne disease research and outreach, published over 90 papers on the subject, edited one book and holds  4 U.S. patents. For the past decade, a major focus of his laboratory has been developing a genes-to-vaccines strategy for blocking tick feeding and preventing tick-borne disease transmission. More recently, his team is aggressively developing on-line and new media platforms for health promotion programs to prevent tick-borne diseases. 

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