• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, October 31, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Immunology

Bat tick found for the first time in New Jersey

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
September 9, 2020
in Immunology
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

“Soft” tick species can pose a risk to public health

IMAGE

Credit: J. Occi/Rutgers Center for Vector Biology

A tick species associated with bats has been reported for the first time in New Jersey and could pose health risks to people, pets and livestock, according to a Rutgers-led study in the Journal of Medical Entomology.

This species (Carios kelleyi) is a “soft” tick. Deer ticks, which carry Lyme disease, are an example of “hard” ticks.

“All ticks feed on blood and may transmit pathogens (disease-causing microbes) during feeding,” said lead author James L. Occi, a doctoral student in the Rutgers Center for Vector Biology at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. “We need to be aware that if you remove bats from your belfry, attic or elsewhere indoors, ticks that fed on those bats may stay behind and come looking for a new source of blood. There are records of C. kelleyi biting humans.”

This soft tick species, a parasite of bats, is known to be in 29 of the 48 contiguous U.S. states, and was confirmed in New Jersey as larvae collected from big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) in Mercer and Sussex counties. This is a new addition to the list of New Jersey ticks.

While the public health risk remains unknown, “finding them on New Jersey bats was an unusual event that prompted bat specialists to contact us. Maybe these ticks are becoming more common,” said senior author Dina M. Fonseca, a professor and director of the Center for Vector Biology in the Department of Entomology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

In other states, C. kelleyi has been found infected with microbes that are harmful to people, pets and livestock. There have been reports of this soft tick feeding on humans, and the bat that hosts them regularly roosts in structures such as attics and barns, underscoring the need to learn more about them, the study says.

“This tick belongs to the family Argasidae, known as ‘soft ticks’ because their body looks leathery and soft,” Fonseca said. That is in contrast to the “hard ticks” (family Ixodidae) that New Jerseyans are more familiar with.

Scientists in the Endangered and Nongame Species Program of the Division of Fish and Wildlife in the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection found the tick larvae on bats last year. Technically, this is not the first time a soft tick has been reported in New Jersey. In 2001, a related tick species – Carios jersey – was found in amber in Middlesex County. That specimen was 90 million to 94 million years old.

“The next steps are to collect more soft tick specimens and test them for disease-causing microbes,” Occi said.

Rutgers coauthors include Andrea M. Egizi, a visiting professor in the Department of Entomology and a research scientist with the Monmouth County Tick-borne Diseases Laboratory hosted by the Rutgers Center for Vector Biology. Scientists at the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, Smithsonian Institution and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research contributed to the study.

Media Contact
Todd Bates
[email protected]

Original Source

https://www.rutgers.edu/news/bat-tick-found-first-time-new-jersey

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jme/tjaa189

Tags: BacteriologyEcology/EnvironmentEntomologyEnvironmental HealthInfectious/Emerging DiseasesMedicine/HealthParasitologyPublic HealthVirologyZoology/Veterinary Science
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

IMAGE

UMass Amherst grad student awarded fellowship for food allergy research

July 23, 2021
IMAGE

Less-sensitive COVID-19 tests may still achieve optimal results if enough people tested

July 22, 2021

Public trust in CDC, FDA, and Fauci holds steady, survey shows

July 20, 2021

USC study shows male-female differences in immune cell function

July 19, 2021
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Sperm MicroRNAs: Crucial Mediators of Paternal Exercise Capacity Transmission

    1292 shares
    Share 516 Tweet 323
  • Stinkbug Leg Organ Hosts Symbiotic Fungi That Protect Eggs from Parasitic Wasps

    312 shares
    Share 125 Tweet 78
  • ESMO 2025: mRNA COVID Vaccines Enhance Efficacy of Cancer Immunotherapy

    202 shares
    Share 81 Tweet 51
  • New Study Suggests ALS and MS May Stem from Common Environmental Factor

    136 shares
    Share 54 Tweet 34

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Researchers Discover Novel Energy Potential in Iron-Based Materials

Impact of Childhood Trauma on Autistic Youth Health

UCSB Experimentalists Awarded Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Grants to Propel New Insights and Innovations

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 67 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.