Eco-epidemiology of spotted fever group rickettsioses and their tick vectors in South Carolina

Tick-borne diseases have tripled in the USA over the past two decades. South Carolina is home to five distinct eco-regions that yield a fertile environment for tick colonization. Our three year state-wide surveillance has identified a high burden of spotted fever group rickettsioses and a high biodiversity of their tick vector species. The current presentation will detail the distribution, species interaction and geographic movement patterns across the 20 million acre state. Advanced computational models identified macrolevel patterns indicative of microlevel processes associated with individual tick species' geographic range expansion and intraspecies competition. A few notable findings include: 1) Amblyomma maculatum, the gulf coast tick, has successfully established itself in the South Carolina Appalachian mountain foothills for the first time, and 2) up to 58% of all ticks are Rickettsia positive.