ArticleJournal of travel medicine2025
Evidence for the long-distance transport of ticks and tick-borne pathogens by human travellers to Texas, USA.
Article in Journal of travel medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Human granulocytic anaplasmosis in Poland: clinical déjà vu or a new chapter in tick-borne diseases?IJID regions · 2026Article
- Surveillance of Ticks and Tickborne Borrelia, Ehrlichia, and Rickettsia spp., Texas, USA, 2014-2021.Emerging infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Case series of acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans in the United States with absent or remote European travel.JAAD case reports · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe incidence of tick-borne diseases in the USA has surged in recent years, with >50 000 cases reported from an estimated half-million cases annually. While domestic vectors are well characterized, the role of human travel in transporting exotic ticks and pathogens remains poorly understood.
methodsWe analysed 4808 submissions of ticks removed from individuals to the Tick-Borne Disease Research Laboratory in Texas, USA, from 2004 to 2024. Tick species were identified phenotypically or through DNA-based sequencing, and pathogens (Borrelia spp., Rickettsia spp., Ehrlichia spp., Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Babesia microti) were detected using molecular assays. Submitter travel histories were cross-referenced with known tick geographic ranges to identify long-distance transport.
resultsWe documented cases of intercontinental, international and domestic interstate transport of ticks by human travellers. Four Ixodes ricinus ticks-originating from Europe-were transported to Texas; one tick carried Borrelia afzelii, a Lyme disease pathogen not endemic to North America. Central and South American Amblyomma species were repeatedly imported, raising concerns for pathogen transmission and tick establishment. Domestic travellers also carried Ixodes scapularis ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Babesia microti and A. phagocytophilum from Lyme-endemic regions of the USA to Texas, along with non-native species Ixodes pacificus, Dermacentor andersoni and Dermacentor occidentalis from endemic areas in the western United States.
conclusionsLong-distance transport of ticks by travellers represents an underrecognized pathway for the global spread of ticks and tick-borne pathogens. Clinicians should consider travel history in tick-borne illness diagnostics. Enhanced surveillance, public education and travel screening are critical to mitigating these risks.
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