An Examination of the Effect of Cloth Material on the Efficiency and Success of Tick Dragging Protocol in Lynchburg Va.

Studies have found that ticks serve as a major vector of arthropod-borne pathogens that could possibly affect human populations. Ixodes scapularis and Amblyomma americanum are the two most prevalent tick species which have been found to bite and feed off of humans. Both of these ticks can carry pathogens potentially fatal to humans. Ixodes scapularis serves as a vector of Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease), Anaplasma phagocytophilum (anaplasmosis), and Babesia microti (babesiosis). Amblyomma americanum has been found to carry Ehrlichia chaffeensis (human monocytic ehrlichiosis), BRBV, and HRTV. Over the last several decades, the distribution across the United States of both of these species of ticks has expanded, and for this reason it is important to study tick populations in order to study changes in the abundance of pathogens within both populations of species. For the 2021 Fall Semester, the University of Lynchburg’s Biology Department purchased tick collection drag cloths from BioQuip, and they have been utilized by the BIOL113 students to drag for ticks for DNA sequencing. These drag cloths have demonstrated to be unsuccessful in collecting ticks, and one hypothesis for this failure is the canvas material of the drag cloths. The purpose of this study is to increase the efficiency of tick collection using drag cloths by testing the effectiveness of different cloth materials. The BioQuip Canvas drag cloths will be used as a control for this study, and three cloth materials (corduroy, flannel, and muslin cloth) were chosen to test against this control based on their use in published research. Drag cloths were built using the three test materials, and tick drag sampling was performed between the months of July-September around local park locations within Lynchburg, Va.