Ticks are significant nuisance pests and vectors of pathogens for humans, companion animals, and livestock. Billions of dollars are spent annually trying to control tick populations and manage tick-borne diseases of medical and veterinary concern. Compared to mosquitoes, research protocols, resources, and reagents for ticks are significantly more limited. The duration of the tick’s feeding process and life cycle can also present considerable challenges based upon the experimental question. However, despite these obstacles, research on ticks and tick-borne pathogens is advancing faster than ever. This presentation will provide an update on tick reagents and resources and highlight new research methods and procedures to study tick biology, tick control strategies, and tick-borne pathogen transmission, spanning from the bench to the field. Notable methods that will be discussed include advances in tick transgenics (e.g. CRISPR, germline editing), electropenetrography techniques to study tick feeding behaviors in real-time, updates on the development of anti-tick vaccines, progress in development of tick control products for humans, and incorporation of machine-learning algorithms for tick spatiotemporal modeling and predictions as well as dissecting the interplay of microbial populations that comprise the tick microbiome. Collectively, these current research initiatives in tick research will hopefully provide novel insight and elucidate opportunities for targeted tick and tick-borne pathogen control strategies.
.png)
