WABI, B98.5 tout Cooperative Extension Tick Lab
WABI (Channel 5) interviewed Griffin Dill and Thomas Rounsville about testing done at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Tick Lab, which is part of the Pest Management Unit within the Cooperative Extension Diagnostic and Research Laboratory. Maine residents can have ticks tested for pathogens for $15 per sample. “We can get a good idea of the geographic distribution of where ticks are being found, what ticks are being found, as well as where and what pathogens are being found within the tick population,” said Dill, an integrated pest management professional with Cooperative Extension and coordinator of the tick lab. Dill told WABI the lab has received 1,500 ticks since April. “The primary ones we are looking at are deer ticks, the dog tick, and something called the woodchuck tick. The deer tick and the dog tick are by far the most common species that we encounter.” Thomas Rounsville, a molecular diagnostic professional with Cooperative Extension, said testing can provide people with peace of mind as well as allow staff to “create maps throughout the state of higher areas of risk [and to] research how these tick-borne diseases are changing.” Instructions about submitting a tick specimen is on the Tick Lab website. B98.5, Central Maine’s country radio station, encouraged people to submit ticks for testing to the lab in light of the Maine Center for Disease Control announcement that an adult patient in southern Maine had been diagnosed with Powassan virus.