Lab Analyzing Central New York Ticks Says It’s Worse Than We Thought

You may recall a lab offered free testing of ticks found in Central New York this past summer and fall. Well, the results are in and they are anything but comforting. In fact, you may want to invest in body bubble stock.

The Thangamani Lab at SUNY Upstate Medical University continues its research project on the geographic location of ticks and the diseases they carry in New York. The results from their testing from July to October of this year were first reported by NY Upsate.com.

The lab studied approximately 1900 ticks and found nearly one in three carry some form of disease, most often Lyme disease.  Even scarier; Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, and Cayuga county tests show nearly 40% of ticks have a disease, while St.Lawrence, Cortland, and Tioga Counties topped 50%.

Digging deeper into the test results gets even more terrifying. A large number of ticks carry more than 1 disease, and several were found to have bacterium Borrelia miyamotoi, a disease worse than Lyme Disease. You can read the test results on the lab's website. Here's NY Upstate.com's in-depth story on the test results.

The lab continues to offer free testing of any ticks you find. They will even respond with an email with the test results. Here's how to send a tick in for analysis:

Put the ticks (dead/alive) in a Ziploc bag with a piece of moist tissue paper or grass.
Place the zip-lock bag in an envelope with the following information:

• Date:
• Location (please provide the zip code):
• Was the tick collected from a human or a pet?:
• Email address to share the test results:

Mail the envelope to this address:

• Thangamani Lab
  4209 Institute for Human Performance (IHP)
  505 Irving Avenue
  SUNY Center for Environmental Health and Medicine
  SUNY Upstate Medical University
  Syracuse NY 13210

It takes the lab about 7 to 12 business days to complete the analysis. Their offices will be closed for the Holidays December 15 through January 5. If you find a tick during the period, freeze them in a zip lock bag and send to the lab when they reopen. Read more on the lab's testing process on their website.

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