2017/01/01 by Rebecca J. Eisen, Kiersten J. Kugeler, Lars Eisen +2 · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Immunology and Microbiology · Medicine · #Biology #Disease #Human disease #Medicine #Tick #Tick-borne disease #Vector (molecular biology) #Vector-Borne Animal Diseases #Vector-borne infectious diseases #Viral Infections and Vectors #Virology #Zoology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/ilar/ilx005
openalex publication_date 2017/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
In the United States, ticks transmit the greatest diversity of arthropod-borne pathogens and are responsible for the most cases of all vector-borne diseases. In recent decades, the number of reported cases of notifiable tick-borne diseases has steadily increased, geographic distributions of many ticks and tick-borne diseases have expanded, and new tick-borne disease agents have been recognized. In this review, we (1) describe the known disease agents associated with the most commonly human-biting ixodid ticks, (2) review the natural histories of these ticks and their associated pathogens, (3) highlight spatial and temporal changes in vector tick distributions and tick-borne disease occurrence in recent decades, and (4) identify knowledge gaps and barriers to more effective prevention of tick-borne diseases. We describe 12 major tick-borne diseases caused by 15 distinct disease agents that are transmitted by the 8 most commonly human-biting ixodid ticks in the United States. Notably, 40% of these pathogens were described within the last two decades. Our assessment highlights the importance of animal studies to elucidate how tick-borne pathogens are maintained in nature, as well as advances in molecular detection of pathogens which has led to the discovery of several new tick-borne disease agents.