We identified an established population of the Gulf Coast tick (Amblyomma maculatum Koch) infected with Rickettsia parkeri in Connecticut, representing the northernmost range limit of this medically relevant tick species. Our finding highlights the importance of tick surveillance and public health challenges posed by geographic expansion of tick vectors and their pathogens.

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Haemaphysalis longicornisCo-infection Babesia microti Borrelia burgdorferi Partial blood meal Mid-Atlantic United StatesThe Asian longhorned tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis, an invasive tick species in the United States, has been found actively host-seeking while infected with several human pathogens. Recent work has recovered large numbers of partially engorged, host-seeking H. longicornis, which together with infection findings raises the question of whether such ticks can reattach to a host and transmit pathogens while taking additional bloodmeals. Here we conducted molecular blood meal analysis in tandem with pathogen screening of partially engorged, host-seeking H. longicornis to identify feeding sources and more inclusively characterize acarological risk. Active, statewide surveillance in Pennsylvania from 2020 to 2021 resulted in the recovery of 22/1,425 (1.5%) partially engorged, host-seeking nymphal and 5/163 (3.1%) female H. longicornis. Pathogen testing of engorged nymphs detected 2 specimens positive for Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, 2 for Babesia microti, and 1 co-infected with Bo. burgdorferi s.l. and Ba. microti. No female specimens tested positive for pathogens. Conventional PCR blood meal analysis of H. longicornis nymphs detected avian and mammalian hosts in 3 and 18 specimens, respectively. Mammalian blood was detected in all H. longicornis female specimens. Only 2 H. longicornis nymphs produced viable sequencing results and were determined to have fed on black-crowned night heron, Nycticorax nycticorax. These data are the first to molecularly confirm H. longicornis partial blood meals from vertebrate hosts and Ba. microti infection and co-infection with Bo. burgdorferi s.l. in host-seeking specimens in the United States, and the data help characterize important determinants indirectly affecting vectorial capacity. Repeated blood meals within a life stage by pathogen-infected ticks suggest that an understanding of the vector potential of invasive H. longicornis populations may be incomplete without data on their natural host-seeking behaviors and blood-feeding patterns in nature. Populations of theAsian longhorned tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis Neumann (Acari: Ixodidae), native to eastern Asia, are increasing rapidly and continuing to spread since first being detected in the northeast United States in 2017 (Rainey et al., 2018). For instance, in Pennsylvania, H. longicornis was first detected in 2019, and immediately thereafter, active surveillance of public areas in the southeastern part of the state revealed the further distribution of this tick species, accounting for 56%, 10%, 34%, and 32% of field-collected specimens (n ¼ 796) from Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties, respectively (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection [DEP] statewide surveillance, unpubl. data). Subsequent surveys of the same counties indicate that populations of H. longicornis have increased substantially and now account for 82%, 56%, 46%, and 54%, respectively, of all collected ticks ...

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