Allison Gardner to present talk on the emergence of Lyme disease in Maine on Monday, October 19

On Monday, October 19, 2020, Allison Gardner will present “Tick Talk: Understanding the Socio-Ecological Drivers of the Emergence of Lyme Disease in Maine” as part of the Science Café series from the MDI Biological Laboratory. The talk will be held via Zoom; registration is required.

Allison is a medical entomologist, assistant professor in the School of Biology and Ecology at UMaine and a Mitchell Center faculty fellow. She is part of a team of researchers on the Mitchell Center project Mitigating Environmental-Human Determinants of Tickborne Disease Risk in Acadia National Park.

The blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) first appeared in Maine during the 1980s, and its geographic range expansion has been associated with an increase in the prevalence of tickborne pathogens throughout the state. Maine has experienced a five-fold increase in incidence of Lyme disease in humans over the past decade, and multiple emerging tickborne diseases are also on the rise, including human babesiosis, human granulocytic anaplasmosis and Powassan virus. This talk will explore the ecological and social drivers of the spread of the blacklegged tick and the pathogens it transmits, drawing upon ongoing, collaborative research at UMaine, and discuss management strategies to inhibit tickborne disease transmission among wildlife and humans.