Ticks of Alabama: the fauna and spatial distribution of medically important species across the state

Human risk to tick encounters in the southeastern United States estimated with spatial distribution modeling

“…These areas have flat plains with wet soils, marshlands, and swampy land cover [74]. Ticks were less likely to be found in the Southeastern Plains, a region that has historically experienced various land use changes such as plantation forestry and agriculture; these land management decisions could have impacts on tick abundance [75,76]. The Southeastern Plains in Tennessee are known to be occupied by A. americanum and their associated tickborne diseases such as human ehrlichiosis and spotted fever group Rickettsioses [77,78].…”

Changes in the geographic distribution of the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, in the United States

“…This is not surprising because, with the exception of the western parts of Virginia and North Carolina in recent years (see Sections 10.4 – 10.5 ), drag sampling has primarily yielded the adult stage of I. scapularis in the Southeast ( Lavender and Oliver, 1996 ; Clark et al, 1998 ; Cilek and Olson, 2000 ; Maggi et al, 2010 ; Glass et al, 2019 ; Morris et al, 2022 ) and the vast majority of human encounters has been with adult ticks ( Felz et al, 1996 ; Merten and Durden, 2000 ). Additional information on the geographic distribution of I. scapularis was published from Alabama ( Kerr et al, 2022a , b ), Florida ( Forrester et al, 1996 ; Cilek and Olson, 2000 ; Durden et al, 2000 ; Allan et al, 2001 ; Fang et al, 2002 ; Burroughs et al, 2016 ; Hertz et al, 2017 ; Glass et al, 2019 , 2021 ; Kessler et al, 2019 ), Georgia ( Durden et al, 2002 ; Fang et al, 2002 ; Wells et al, 2004 ; Wedincamp and Durden, 2016 ), North Carolina ( Apperson et al, 1990 , 1993 ; Levine et al, 1997 ; Maggi et al, 2010 ; Barbarin et al, 2020 ), South Carolina ( Barton et al, 1992 ; Clark et al, 1998 , 2001 ; Fang et al, 2002 ), and Virginia ( Sonenshine et al, 1995 ; Casteel and Sonenshine, 1996 ; Tanner et al, 2010 ; Brinkerhoff et al, 2014 ; Herrin et al, 2014 ; Kelly et al, 2014 ; Nadolny et al, 2014 ; Jackson, 2020 ; Morris et al, 2022 ; Whitlow et al, 2022 ). These studies added numerous new county records for I. scapularis in all states in the Southeast.…”