40 percent of Lincoln ticks tested positive for Lyme in ’14

By Alice Waugh

Forty percent of ticks submitted by Lincoln residents for testing in 2014 came back positive for the bacterium that causes Lyme disease—but some also carried bacteria that cause lesser-known tick-borne diseases.

In this recent Bedford Citizen article, Dr. Anne Kiessling presented data from testing gathered by the Middlesex Tick Task Force, a group of public health staff members and residents from 32 Massachusetts towns including Lincoln that was formed in September 2012 to confront public health issues posed by tick-borne diseases. A statewide Community Innovation Challenge Grant provided free testing of approximately 100 ticks in each of the 32 towns last summer.

Lincoln residents submitted 113 ticks for testing in 2014, and 40 percent of those insects were positive for Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. Nine percent of the tested ticks were also positive for Babesia microti, which can cause babesiosis, and 3 percent carried Anaplasma phagocytophilum, which can cause anaplasmosis. Babesiosis can results in flu-like symptoms or anemia, since it infects the red blood cells, but it may also cause no symptoms at all. Anaplasmosis symptoms vary, but it can be a serious illness that requires hospitalization.

The 2014 testing also showed that 38 percent of Lincoln ticks carried Borrelia myamotoi. Patients with this newly emerging disease (first reported in the Northeast in 2013) can have symptoms similar to those of Lyme disease (fever, headache and muscle aches) but do not have a bull’s-eye rash. Anaplasmosis likewise does not cause a rash, but patients with this disease may have a rash anyway because they are also infected with Lyme disease at the same time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here are data on the four most common tick-borne bacteria gathered by the Tick-Borne Disease Network over the period from 2006-2014:

Tick-borne diseases are estimated to be underreported by a factor of 10 due to lack of good surveillance methods because persons with symptoms of a tick-borne disease are usually prescribed medication before they actually test positive for the infection, according to the Bedford Citizen article.

Although the state grant for free tick testing has expired, Massachusetts residents may still send any species of tick for testing at a cost of $50 apiece to the Tick Borne Disease Network.