Media report on $6.2M in federal funding for UMaine Extension tick lab

News Center Maine and WGME (Channel 13 in Portland) reported on the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Tick Lab receiving $6.2 million in one-time federal spending as part of the omnibus spending bill approved by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in December. The funding, which was part of a $53 million package of federal earmarks secured by Maine’s congressional delegation for the state’s public universities, will allow the lab to undertake the first-of-its-kind statewide tick and tick-borne disease study and conduct outreach to manage and mitigate threats to human health. “I think with this funding, it really allows us to increase the passive surveillance, which is still a part of what we do, and really increase our knowledge of what’s happening with ticks in Maine,” said lab manager Griffin Dill.