Within the department, focus tends to be on studying animal diseases. Work with the diagnostic labs and research labs may overlap, expertise is shared, and collaborations are frequent. Ticks may have feasted on multiple hosts since many ticks, such as the deer tick, require more than one blood meal to complete a life cycle, with each host offering another opportunity to transmit pathogens to the hungry tick.ДЄs a component of the pathobiology and veterinary science department at UConn, CVMDL also serves as the Connecticut State Veterinary Diagnostic Lab. After extracting the DNA, Haycock runs tests for two species of Borrelia and another common tick-borne pathogen in the Northeast, Anaplasma. This sludge is where the genetic information for any pathogens the tick was carrying will be. When they have been pulled off of people, itвЂ™s worse somehow,вЂќ opines Haycock. She adds a little liquid, then smashes the tick into a brownish-red sludge using a small wooden stick. All of these bits of information help determine how successful the tick may have been in transmitting a litany of diseases to its host.ДЄfter the ID, Sims places the tick in a test tube and hands the specimen off to Haycock, who carries on with the processing, first with the ruder awakening - the gruesome job of squishing the tick.

Sims is in charge of the initial steps of tick testing at CVMDL, where she determines the species, the sex, where it is in its life cycle, and the degree of engorgement, which gives an idea of how long the tick was feeding on its host. Stay tuned: ThereвЂ™s a far ruder awakening in this tickвЂ™s near future. вЂњThis one is a female deer tick, and Oh!, sheвЂ™s moving!вЂќ SimвЂ™s head pops up from the scope and she points out eight legs slowly beginning to stir as the lights from the scope warm and wake the tick up. The tick was recently submitted and is ready for identification and testing. Or conversely, it will give you peace of mind that the tick you found didnвЂ™t harbor any nasty pathogens.ДЄ recent visit to CVMDL finds Sims leaning over a dissecting microscope, bright lights and lens trained on a specimen that resembles a parched gray watermelon seed. The knowledge will get you targeted, appropriate treatment. Why have your ticks tested? вЂњKnowledge is power,вЂќ says lab technician Maureen Sims вЂ™06 (CAHNR). The lab tests around 600 ticks each year - provided by clients who take the test results to health care providers. вЂњWould you rather wait or would you rather know?вЂќ asks lab technician Heather Haycock вЂ™03 (CAHNR), who works at the Connecticut Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab (CVMDL) smack dab in the middle of the UConn campus.Д¬VMDL is a little-known resource offering powerful data and potential peace of mind for those who have picked ticks off of themselves or loved ones (two- or four-legged loved ones). And even with symptoms, some tick-borne diseases are difficult to test for in a patient - they can hide out and evade routine testing techniques.ДЇinally, consider that some of these infections can carry lasting effects, such as those seen in post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS), ranging from fatigue and malaise to arthritis, carditis, and neurological symptoms. Now consider that some of the diseases that could result from this encounter may have immediate symptoms and others may have symptoms that donвЂ™t show up for days, weeks, even months. Some diseases are passed quickly others may take a day or two. Some ticks even secrete a cementlike mixture to help them attach even more efficiently. After cutting the hostвЂ™s skin, a tick will sink its mouthparts into the wound and insert a feeding tube.

However, consider a tick is like an eight-legged syringe potentially loaded with multiple pathogens that may or may not be passed to its host while attached. Typically after an attached tick is found, a patient is advised to monitor for flu-like symptoms or a rash for about a week, an understandable tactic considering how common tick bites are. вЂњPeople have become used to ticks as just something we have to deal with.

One could become inured to it.Д«ut it is important not to let the yearly wave of tick stories simply wash over us, warns associate professor of pathobiology Paulo Verardi. Every mention is accompanied by that feeling that something is crawling on your arm, your neck. ItвЂ™s even harder to avoid the terrifying headlines about the latest devastating disease and how rampant it is likely to be. It seems impossible to miss media accounts of how large the population was last year and how much worse it could be this year.ДЄnd you would be hard pressed to find someone - or someone who knows someone - who hasnвЂ™t been impacted by a tick-borne disease. Another summer in New England, another boom in the tick population.

Uconn pathbiology lab tick testing