{"id":121759,"date":"2025-04-30T02:02:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T07:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=121759"},"modified":"2025-04-30T08:25:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T13:25:16","slug":"unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/","title":{"rendered":"UNMC unveiling new tick testing, surveillance program"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Beginning May 1, UNMC will unveil the Nebraska Tick Testing (NeTT) Program<\/a> to allow members of the public to send ticks to the university for testing and surveillance.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Shaun
Shaun Cross, PhD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The goal, said Shaun Cross, PhD, assistant professor in the UNMC College of Public Health, will be to test for any tick-borne pathogens to which someone might have been exposed. At the same time, NeTT will also build up a database of the types of ticks and the prevalence of particular tick-borne pathogens in various parts of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a public health component to this statewide effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere’s movement of new ticks into Nebraska,\u201d Dr. Cross said, pointing to an influx of deer ticks to the eastern part of the state over the past few years. \u201cThe cases of tickborne diseases are rapidly growing as well. This will empower us to inform the public and to understand the burden of tickborne diseases across the United States, and especially here in Nebraska.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Cross pointed to Ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Alpha-gal syndrome (red meat allergy) as three tickborne diseases seen in Nebraska, with the relatively newly arrived deer ticks bringing the threat of Lyme disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individuals can gather a tick \u2013 whether it’s on themselves, on their pet or in the environment \u2013 fill out a short form and submit it to the program\u2019s laboratory for free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt that point, we’ll do some molecular biology testing to screen it for different pathogens, and we’ll send back a report: what type of tick was sent in and were there any pathogens associated with it. We’re not an FDA-approved diagnostic lab, so we won’t tell people to use this as a formal diagnosis. But it gives them awareness to say, \u2018Okay, I know I got bit by this type of tick, and I know that it tested positive for this pathogen.\u2019 So, if they do start feeling unwell, they can go to their medical provider with information that will help decide whether they might have a tickborne disease.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program\u2019s webpage, hosted on UNMC\u2019s website under the Central State Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, will feature instructions on how to send in a tick, as well as a survey on when and where it was found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Access the Nebraska Tick Testing Program webpage at this link.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we receive the tick, we’ll process the tick, and we\u2019ll report back with information on the type \u2013 a dog tick, a lone star tick, deer tick \u2013 and whether it was carrying any pathogens. We hope the whole process will take five to seven business days. We do this at no cost to the submitters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NeTT program hopes to develop a \u201cheat map\u201d to track the different types of ticks and their associated pathogens that have been seen throughout the state and eventually the Midwest region, as it will accept tick samples from outside the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hope to understand, especially in the Midwest, what is the burden of tickborne diseases in the Midwestern states,\u201d Dr. Cross said. \u201cEach year, we\u2019ll produce a report that will track the types and the diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program will be working with Nebraska One Health<\/a> and an organization known as the Nebraska Tick Network, which includes not only researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Kearney and Omaha, Creighton and other universities, but also members from government partnerships, such as the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur hope is that we’ll be able to gather this information and share it with our partners and our public health departments, so that they can provide targeted interventions and education.\u201d<\/p>\n AfcWsQTm N IgMMrY uG<\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With new ticks moving into the state, the UNMC College of Public Health will partner to increase tick and disease monitoring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":121762,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"118854,61407,34500,69135,51634,71054","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","topic-community","topic-wellness","department-college-of-public-health","department-environmental-agricultural-and-occupational-health","department-unmc-front-page","department-unmc-today-todays-headlines","author_override-john-keenan-unmc-strategic-communications"],"yoast_head":"\nUNMC unveiling new tick testing, surveillance program<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With new ticks moving into the state, the UNMC College of Public Health will partner to increase tick and disease monitoring.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UNMC unveiling new tick testing, surveillance program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With new ticks moving into the state, the UNMC College of Public Health will partner to increase tick and disease monitoring.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Newsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-30T07:02:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-30T13:25:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/NETTTick042925.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey Robb\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeffrey Robb\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeffrey Robb\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/6c55382c243ff55b6c4dee62262b6a5c\"},\"headline\":\"UNMC unveiling new tick testing, surveillance program\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-30T07:02:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-30T13:25:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/\"},\"wordCount\":627,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/NETTTick042925.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/\",\"name\":\"UNMC unveiling new tick testing, surveillance program\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/NETTTick042925.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-30T07:02:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-30T13:25:16+00:00\",\"description\":\"With new ticks moving into the state, the UNMC College of Public Health will partner to increase tick and disease monitoring.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/NETTTick042925.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/NETTTick042925.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UNMC unveiling new tick testing, surveillance program\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"name\":\"Newsroom\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":153,\"caption\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/unmc\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/6c55382c243ff55b6c4dee62262b6a5c\",\"name\":\"Jeffrey Robb\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/d09bf41544a3365a46c9077ebb5e35c3\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UNMC unveiling new tick testing, surveillance program","description":"With new ticks moving into the state, the UNMC College of Public Health will partner to increase tick and disease monitoring.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UNMC unveiling new tick testing, surveillance program","og_description":"With new ticks moving into the state, the UNMC College of Public Health will partner to increase tick and disease monitoring.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/","og_site_name":"Newsroom","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","article_published_time":"2025-04-30T07:02:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-04-30T13:25:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/NETTTick042925.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jeffrey Robb","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@unmc","twitter_site":"@unmc","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeffrey Robb","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeffrey Robb","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/6c55382c243ff55b6c4dee62262b6a5c"},"headline":"UNMC unveiling new tick testing, surveillance program","datePublished":"2025-04-30T07:02:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-30T13:25:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/"},"wordCount":627,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/NETTTick042925.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/","name":"UNMC unveiling new tick testing, surveillance program","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/NETTTick042925.jpg","datePublished":"2025-04-30T07:02:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-30T13:25:16+00:00","description":"With new ticks moving into the state, the UNMC College of Public Health will partner to increase tick and disease monitoring.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/NETTTick042925.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/NETTTick042925.jpg","width":900,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/04\/30\/unmc-unveiling-new-tick-testing-surveillance-program\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UNMC unveiling new tick testing, surveillance program"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","name":"Newsroom","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization","name":"University of Nebraska Medical Center","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","width":500,"height":153,"caption":"University of Nebraska Medical Center"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","https:\/\/x.com\/unmc","https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/6c55382c243ff55b6c4dee62262b6a5c","name":"Jeffrey Robb","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/d09bf41544a3365a46c9077ebb5e35c3\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121759"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121779,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121759\/revisions\/121779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}