Biologist Hokit Grant I came to this small meadow on the mountain outside Condon, Montana, and found a tick. The hiking path is WAS with long grass and berry bushes.
When Hokit walked the road, he carried a handmade tool made of plastic pipes made of tape together to fix the large rectangle of the white flannel cloth.
He did not have fun in this “sophisticated” device, but the scientific investigation was very serious. He wiped out the cloth over shrubs and grass and hoped to get a “quest” mite.
Along the summer trail, the tick hangs from the lawn blade and is waiting for a mammal that passes by.
Hokit said, “We got one.
“So it’s out of this surge grass,” he said. “Simply pull them out with your fingers. We have a vial that bursts them.”
The captured tick returns to Helena’s Hokit’s laboratory for identification. Most of them will probably be identified by Rocky Mountain Teen Tree Mites.
But Hokit also wanted to find out if the new species were heading to the country.
As human climate change shortens winter, ticks spend less maximum power and ride animals and people. Sometimes ticks have themselves. And the disease -The new area of the country.
Hokit has been found Deer is the first mite Earlier this year, in northeastern Montana. Deer mites are notorious for spreading lime bottles and can infect people. Other pathogens.
It is important for doctors to arrive new species, such as deer mites, or arrive in another state.
Neil bat I am an epidemic specialist in Billings Clinic in the eastern part of Montana. He said most patients did not enter right after the tick. They usually appear later when they start to get sick with tic -mediated diseases.
“Ten, some chills, they can feel similar to many infections we can experience all year round.”
It is de rare that the patient connects the tick to the symptoms. And it’s much more rare to luxury them and capture and keep ticks. It can be complicated to summarize whether someone is suffering from mites.
KU knows that if you know what kind of ticks you have in this area, KU can see that you can start meeting patients with new illnesses after the tick bite, KU said.
That’s why the state hunting a new tick species partially.
“The more you know about Montana’s content, the more you can inform your doctor and get better treatment.” Devon CosateAnimal disease and vector mediated epidemiologist with the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Cozart collects ticks in Montana’s field survey and tests to see if you have a pathogen.
Whether ticks can get human sickness depend on the species, but the types of mammals they eat also play an important role.
She says, “Rocky Mountain is a rodent that can be found in Loki.” So the tick will be eaten after eating the rodent and then obtained. “
Since the prevalence of certain diseases can be different, the tick of a part of the country is unlikely to hurt you. Cozart said that this is also important for medical providers.
This kind of monitoring and testing does not occur in all county or weeks. no way 2023 Survey About one of the 500 health departments in the country have found a kind of tick surveillance.
Not all Monitoring effort I said it was the same Chelsea Gridley-SMITHDirector of Environmental Health of the National City and County Health Civil Service Association.
On -site surveys can be expensive. For many regions and state health departments, tick surveillance depends on less expensive and passive approaches. Related patients, veterinarians and doctors must collect ID cards and send ticks.
“This actually provides information about which ticks interact with humans and animals, but they do not go into weeds about how often the general tick in the area and how often the ticks carry the pathogen.
She said that more health departments want to begin to monitor ticks, but it is difficult to raise funds, and the federal health subsidies can be difficult as the federal public subsidies of institutions such as disease control and prevention centers are dried.
Montana receives about $ 60,000 from federal subsidies, but most of the funds are headed for mosquito monitoring. This is more intensive and expensive. The remaining funds travel to the field to find ticks.
Hokit said his small team was not enough to investigate everywhere in the state as much as Montana. In other words, it means that he cannot monitor the emerging deer mites as much as he wants.
He found a new deer mite in two Montana County, but founded a regional population without enough data to decide whether he started playing there.
In the meantime, Hokit uses data on climate and vegetation to predict where deer mites can flourish. He has when he has eyes in a particular area of Montana or West, like Flathead Valley.
He said he and his team would help me narrow the next.
This article is part of the partnership NPR and Montana Public Radio
