Dr. Jean Tsao

[RE-UPLOAD FROM JUNE 16, 2021]

Dr. Jean Tsao (Twitter: @JTsao1) from MSU's Department of Fisheries and Wildlife talks about everybody's "favorite" ticks! We also chatted about how she became an expert in this group of arthropods and she shared this list of resources with us:

Michigan Department of Health & Human Services (MDHHS) page on  tick-borne diseases

Current MDHHS Lyme disease risk map (to which Jean's lab has contributed much of the tick data)

MDHHS document that summarizes the tick and disease risk trends over the last 5 years

MDHHS's webpage for ordering tick warning signs, tick ID cards, and tick collection/submission kits for tick ID [only].  You can also submit photos of ticks instead of the ticks themselves and probably get a faster turnaround time on the ID.

Here is the link to The Tick App, a mobile health app Jean and colleagues developed to improve tick prevention - both through outreach/education about ticks and tick prevention, but also through community science regarding both improving tick prevention practices as well as monitoring for invasive ticks. Here's a recent write-up about the app from MSU Today.

Watch this episode on YouTube here!

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