Tick Biodiversity and Lyme Disease:

Potential Connections in North-Central West Virginia

Abstract

Ixodid (Acari: Ixodidae) ticks are widespread, diverse, and known as carriers of several important diseases. Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness affecting humans, livestock, and domestic animals and is caused by the spirochaete Borrelia burgdorferi. It is the most common tick-borne illness reported in West Virginia with more than 100 cases per 100,000 WV residents. Ixodes scapularis ticks obtain B. burgdorferi from rodents and transmit Lyme disease to their next host during feeding. We analyzed overall tick biodiversity in north-central West Virginia from the years 2018 to 2023. In total, 1,684 individual ixodid (hard) ticks have been collected from four genera: Ixodes (58.5%), Dermacentor (31.6%), Haemaphysalis (8.7%), and Amblyomma (0.2%). Our results demonstrate an increase in tick biodiversity from 2018 to 2023. One striking change included the presence of Amblyomma americanum (Lonestar) ticks in areas where their presence had not been recorded previously. We examined all collected Ixodes ticks for the presence of Borrelia DNA which was detected through real-time quantitative PCR analysis. We tested 745 Ixodes scapularis and found a 2% infection rate. The potential rise of Lyme disease and changing tick biodiversity could pose threats towards community health, agricultural revenue, and veterinary resources. Future work should focus on additional tick-borne illnesses like Rickettsia sp. and Theileria sp. within central West Virginia tick species.