An increasing number of ticks in the Hudson Valley are carrying more than one disease-causing germ that can make people sick, according to a new study from the Cary Institute of Ecological Studies in Millbrook. Researchers say the trend could complicate diagnosis and treatment in humans after a tick bite.
Details of the study were released by the institute, and additional insights were provided in an interview with lead researcher Shannon LaDeau.
The findings are part of a long-running research effort in Dutchess County, where scientists have been collecting and tracking ticks for decades. The current analysis draws on nearly 10 years of samples, part of a 35-year monitoring project led by Cary Institute disease ecologist Richard S. Ostfeld. Ticks collected from forested plots on the Cary campus were frozen and later tested for a wide range of pathogens using updated laboratory methods.
According to the report, more than 38% of the ticks tested were capable of spreading at least one disease-causing pathogen to people.
“The probability of being exposed to a pathogen by a single bite from a nymphal tick is approaching 40%,” said Ostfeld in a statement. “That seems uncomfortably high. These ticks are so small, most people don’t even realize when one is feeding on them.”
Lead researcher Shannon LaDeau, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute, has spent her career studying how diseases move through ecosystems. Her early work focused on tracking the spread of West Nile virus through bird populations using large datasets, before turning her attention to ticks and tick-borne illness in the Northeast.
The latest study analyzed more than 2,000 blacklegged ticks collected over nearly a decade in Dutchess County and found that roughly 1 in 10 ticks in their nymph stage – the small, hard-to -see phase most likely to bite humans – were carrying at least two pathogens.
“That means a single tick bite could expose someone to more than one illness,” LaDeau said in an interview.
The ticks themselves are not born carrying disease, she added. Instead, they pick up pathogens during their first blood meal as larvae, when they are extremely small and remain close to the ground in leaf litter. At that stage, they typically feed on small rodents, such as mice and chipmunks. If the host animal is infected, the tick can acquire more pathogens.
Lyme disease, once acquired by a tick, stays with it for life, while other pathogens like Babesia may clear over time.
Life cycle of the blacklegged tick. Ticks take a blood meal at each life stage: larva, nymph, and adult. Ticks acquire pathogens by taking blood meals from infected animals (often rodents). The study focused on nymphal ticks, which are poppy seed sized. Their small size makes them hard to detect and remove, and more likely to pass pathogens to people. Illustration by Leslie Tumblety/Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Overall, researchers found that more than a third of ticks tested were carrying at least onepathogen, with Lyme disease remaining common. About 20% of ticks carried the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, while lower levels of other known illnesses, such as anaplasmosis, were detected.
One of the more striking findings was the rise of babesiosis, an illness caused by a parasite that requires different treatment than Lyme disease.
“Babesia has been increasing over time,” LaDeau said, noting that in some years it was even more common in ticks than the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. “There’s a lot of year-to-year variation, but over the longer term, it’s increasing.”
These results have important public health implications, LaDeau said, because the two pathogens require different tests and treatments. Lyme disease is treated with antibiotics such as doxycycline, while Babesia infections are treated with antiparasitic medications.
“This particular co-infection does represent a new risk in the sense that Babesia and Lyme do not respond to the same treatment,” LaDeau said. Anaplasma, which has been around for a long time and has historically had a co-infection with Lyme disease, does respond to the same treatment.
“In the Northeast, when someone gets sick after a tick bite, medical professionals should be testing for both pathogens to ensure proper diagnosis and treatment,” said LaDeau.
How to protect yourself from tick bites
For residents spending time outdoors, LaDeau said prevention starts with awareness. Wearing light-colored clothing can make ticks easier to spot, and checking yourself regularly – both while outside and after coming indoors – is key. Tick activity also varies throughout the year, with certain times, particularly late spring and late summer, posing higher risk.
Just as important is knowing your surroundings. “There are places where you go out and get ticks every time, and other places where you don’t,” LaDeau said, noting that ticks come from the ground and typically latch on from leaf litter as they climb upward.
The annual Millerton Fire Company Easter egg hunt returned to Eddie Collins Memorial Park on Saturday, April 4.
Tyler Dehoff discovers a piece of chocolate in a plastic egg at the zero to two-year-old egg hunt area.Nathan Miller
Families crowd into hay wagons for a parade down Main Street to the park before the egg hunt.Nathan Miller
Bob Stevens, right, enjoys the swinging sounds of country and western music during a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, with his son, Robert Stevens Jr., not pictured.
Stevens’s only son, 39-year-old Robert Stevens Jr., along with employees at the town garage and others in the community, remembered Stevens as a dedicated man with a singular passion for highway maintenance.
“It was an absolutely huge part of his life,” Robert said.
Robert Jr. said Stevens was as supportive as a father as he was dedicated to his work for the town. He recalled a week-long BMX biking trip to Camp Woodward in Pennsylvania that his father drove him to and from, making the round trip twice without a complaint.
“It didn’t matter how little or how far we were going,” Robert said. “If it was to support me, he was on. Always.”
Road crew foreman Shawn Morrison said that supportive nature extended to Stevens’s role as Highway Superintendent, where he prioritized the safety of workers and drivers above all else.
“He always said to me, ‘If you don’t feel safe doing it, then we’re not going to do it,’” Morrison said.
Morrison praised Stevens’s dedication to his post, saying he often worked long hours and weekends out of a love for the job. Winter was a favorite season, as Morrison said he was obsessive about clearing the town’s roads during snowstorms.
“A lot of people had nicknames out there for him — calling him ‘Bare-road Bob,’” Morrison said. “He was anal about his roads in the winter.”
Stevens rarely missed a day of work, for sickness or for pleasure, road crew employees and Town Supervisor Chris Kennan said. Joshua Schultz, a road crew member and Stevens’s godson, said he could remember one notable absence. “He took his son to Nashville,” Schultz said.
Photo providedBob Stevens, right, and his son, Robert Stevens Jr., pose for a photograph together. Robert remembered his father as a caring and supportive man following his death on Monday, March 30.Photo provided
Robert Jr. said he and his father traveled twice to Nashville, Tennessee — among the few trips they took together — but a third visit was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other travel opportunities often depended on Stevens’s work at the town garage. “If it was wintertime, he’s here,” Robert said. “He’s taking care of the town.”
Sickness didn’t keep Stevens at home either. Morrison said he would work from his well-known orange pickup truck to keep from spreading colds to people.
The orange pick-up truck was a fixture around town, Supervisor Chris Kennan said. Stevens was often spotted inspecting roads across town in the recognizable truck, when it wasn’t parked at the town garage while he worked in his office.
Kennan said the town will begin a search for a new Highway Superintendent, with a committee expected to form at the Thursday, April 9, Town board meeting. He also expects the board to install a plaque at the town garage on Route 22 honoring Stevens’s service.
Kennan proposed the plaque at a special meeting of the Town Board on April 1, saying a modest display would respect Stevens’s private nature.
“I’m excited that we’re going to put a plaque on that building,” Kennan said. “It’s appropriate that there be some reflection of what he put into it.”
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