The IDI is pleased to announce the launch of Buckeye Tick Test, a public tick-borne pathogen testing service designed to detect the presence of specific pathogens in various tick species.
Led by faculty director, Dr. Risa Pesapane, assistant professor, College of Veterinary Medicine and College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and staffed by our expert tick-borne pathogen testing team led by Cece Bryant, Buckeye Tick Test is the first of its kind in the state of Ohio.
This service couldn’t come at a more critical time as the tick population, the number of tick species, and the associated tick-borne diseases in people and animals are dramatically increasing across the Buckeye State. In fact, Ohio now has six medically important tick species. These include blacklegged ticks, American dog ticks, lone star ticks, gulf coast ticks, Asian longhorned ticks, and brown dog ticks, each of which carries one or more pathogens that could be harmful to humans and/or animals.
The Ohio State University Buckeye Tick Test is addressing this critical situation by offering cost-effective tick-borne pathogen testing with test results delivered within 72 hours. After receiving the test results, individuals can share the information with their medical providers and/or veterinarians. Buckeye Tick Test at Ohio State has the potential to reduce tick-borne pathogen disease for hundreds of people and animals, and the data from the tick testing will provide much-needed, publicly available tick pathogen surveillance information.
"I’m extremely proud that this team has worked to achieve a higher standard of quality than any other commercial tick testing lab in the nation, to my knowledge. We confirmed >97% agreement with the CDC’s tick testing lab through comparative tick testing to be confident in the service we’re providing for the state and its constituents. This service fills an urgent need as Ohio is becoming a high-incidence state for Lyme Disease, with cases having increased 47-fold since 2010," said Dr. Risa Pesapane, Buckeye Tick Test Faculty Director.
