Tick-borne disease
A tick-borne disease is an illness caused by a pathogen transmitted through the bite of an infected tick. It can affect humans or other animals.
Tick: A blood-feeding arachnid that can transmit pathogens to humans and other animals. Ticks acquire pathogens from infected hosts and may pass them on during later blood meals.
Lyme disease: A bacterial infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato and transmitted by hard ticks. It is a common tick-borne disease in parts of North America, Europe, and Asia.
Tick bite prevention: Measures that reduce tick contact and lower the chance of tick bites. Avoiding bites prevents exposure to the pathogens that ticks may transmit.
Climate change and tick-borne diseases: The study of how climate-related changes affect ticks, pathogens, and patterns of disease. Temperature and moisture can alter tick survival, activity, and geographic range.
Tick-borne pathogen transmission: The transfer of infectious agents between ticks and vertebrate hosts, sometimes across tick life stages. Transmission explains how an infected bite can initiate disease.
Rocky Mountain spotted fever: A potentially severe bacterial illness caused by Rickettsia rickettsii and transmitted by ticks. Its rapid progression makes prompt recognition and treatment especially important.
Tick removal: The careful extraction of an attached tick, usually with fine-tipped tweezers. Prompt, proper removal limits attachment time and helps avoid injuring the tick.
Land-use change: Human-driven changes to landscapes, such as urbanization, agriculture, and forest fragmentation. Landscape shifts alter contact among ticks, wildlife hosts, domestic animals, and people.
Salivary glands: Organs that produce and release saliva in many animals, including ticks. Tick saliva enters the bite site and can help pathogens establish infection.
Babesiosis: A parasitic infection in which Babesia organisms invade red blood cells; some species spread through tick bites. It shows that tick-borne diseases can be caused by parasites as well as bacteria and viruses.