Connecticut tick identification3/28/2024 ![]() ![]() Powassan virus is spread to people through the bite of an infected blacklegged, or deer tick. “Using insect repellent, avoiding areas where ticks are likely, and checking carefully for ticks after being outside can reduce the chance of you or your children being infected with this virus.” “The identification of four Connecticut residents with Powassan virus-associated illness emphasizes the importance of taking actions to protect yourself from tick bites from now through the late fall,” said DPH Commissioner Manisha Juthani. ![]() They have been discharged and are recovering. All patients reported a known tick bite and were hospitalized with a central nervous system disease. Collins, CO, confirmed the presence of antibodies to POWV for all patients. Laboratory tests performed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Laboratory in Ft. Two female patients aged 50 years and older, residents of Windham and Litchfield County, became ill during late July. Two male patients aged 60 years and older, residents of Middlesex County and Litchfield County, became ill during early July. During 2016–2022, 19 cases of POWV associated illness were reported in Connecticut, including six in 2022 two of the infections were fatal last year. These four cases of POWV associated illness are the first to be identified in Connecticut in 2023. in New Haven.The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) today announced that four CT residents have tested positive for Powassan virus (POWV) infection. When found, ticks should be preserved alive and submitted to the experiment station at 123 Huntington St. “Once they get here, because we don’t have that kind of limiting temperature factor that would limit their activity, then they can establish populations,” he said. Ticks tend not to survive freezing temperatures, he said, but warmer winters allow them to survive, he said. “Therefore, they can easily establish populations and are becoming major problems.” It is easier for ticks to establish populations because “we are not having harsher temperatures anymore in winter months,” Molaei said. “And that is the challenge, similar to what we are seeing with regards to Asian longhorn ticks, even though we don’t know how that tick got into the United States in 2017,” Molaei said. “There’s a potential that some of these could get here, landing in the United States or Connecticut,” and begin to reproduce in the field. ![]() “There is no guarantee that these all will be intercepted and will be submitted to us,” he said. Molaei said he is concerned because it is impossible to know how many ticks are entering the United States. Many travelers pick up ticks when they visit animal sanctuaries or go horseback riding, enabling ticks to hop onto them, he said. ![]() “The other side of the story is that … once these ticks come with the travelers, there’s a nationwide risk because once these ticks get here, there’s no guarantee they will not be able to have the population,” Molaei said. The female lone star tick has a white spot on her back. Her doctor did not know its species and treated her with antibiotics. One woman in Fairfield County discovered a tick in her navel after returning from Africa, which had been on her body for a week, Molaei said. But we have one that is coming from Africa that transmits their own set of diseases that we don’t have here in the United States,” he said. “And in their native range they are involved in transmission of Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases that we have here. Molaei said the ticks, which have come from Europe, Africa and South America and Central America, are unlike previous invasive species, such as the Asian longhorned tick, lone star tick and the Gulf Coast tick, which have established populations in Connecticut and beyond in the last five or six years. Molaei, who directs the experiment station’s tick and tick-borne diseases surveillance program, said his concern is that the ticks may bring in unfamiliar diseases that doctors cannot easily identify. “So it does appear that these invasive ticks are hitchhiking on humans and other means to get to the United States, and that is quite concerning.” Goudarz Molaei is director of the tick and tick-borne diseases program at Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven. So that is the challenge that we are having,” Molaei said. “In the past few weeks only, we have received four invasive ticks. New species of ticks are arriving from overseas, and they may be bringing diseases that are unfamiliar to American doctors, according to Goudarz Molaei, chief scientist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven. ![]()
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