We had a successful sandfly surveillance in an emerging endemic areas of Kajiado County, Kenya. We thank icipe, Kenya Medical Research Institute & NIH Funding along with both Dr. Damaris Matoke & Dr. Dan Masiga.

📢A guide to mosquitoes in the Pacific is finally online! Thanks to everyone in our amazing vector community that provided input and insight. Also big shout out to the Pacific Community Pacific Community for providing open access publishing. 🦟🦟🦟👇 purl.org/spc/digilib/do… tom burkot

Where do you find lone star ticks, which are the parasite most associated with alpha-gal syndrome in the U.S. ? iNaturalist can help. Surprised to see two reports from Winnipeg! Photograph and iNat your tick sightings, folks! inaturalist.org/observations?p…

It's time for #callnotes the bird mnemonic quiz challenge. The first to name today's mystery bird will be the winner 🏆 🥇 listen for: tea dear dear dear hear dear and tea-too. Was once lumped now properly restored to its former distinctive glory. Named after the male's pattern.

To avoid tick bites, conduct a thorough tick-check for yourself, your children and pets after spending time in and near wooded areas, tall grass, and brush. Removing ticks within a 24-hour period reduces the risk of potential disease transmission.

Check out our interactive tick map that documents the counties in Illinois where the different tick species have been confirmed and the types of pathogens present in those ticks: idph.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries…

"The current paradigm is that GI doctors should rarely think about food allergies, because those are problems of kids, not adults, and symptoms in allergies should occur reproducibly after exposure. That’s just not true in alpha-gal allergy." 1/ gastroendonews.com/PRN/Article/03…

In Boston today sharing analysis with resident researchers on housing affordability as part of a collaboration with MIT’s Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative. The storytelling that @emmalwalters and Julia de Souza Campos Paiva did led to powerful storytelling and conversation…

Don't miss the great, new NPR episode about alpha-gal syndrome! "What's new is that we have patients who really just have GI symptoms" Follow experts scott commins and Sarah McGill if you are interested in this condition. kvcrnews.org/2023-04-02/tic…

How can we predict species responses to #climatechange if they are going to experience temperatures that we have not observed yet? New paper in PNASNews led by Ty Wagner incorporates thermal tolerances into statistical models of abundance. pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

How many ticks did I spot along a #SanFrancisco #BayArea trail? Just behind suburban backyards? Here are 4 of SO MANY! ⁦LymeDisease.org⁩ ⁦California Department of Public Health⁩ ⁦Bay Area Lyme Foundation⁩ ⁦CDC⁩ ⁦NIH⁩ #Tick #Lyme ⁦JV ⁦NYT Health⁩ ⁦UCSF School of Medicine ⁦UC San Francisco

Asthma was the 1st symptom I associated with eating red meat; I wasn't diagnosed until I had anaphylactic rxns yrs later. More like 10 minutes after eating in my case. I had to eat liver pâté at my doctor's office to convince her that my reactions were real. #listentopatients

Watching a movie, I tell my 9-yr old: “But, you can see an upside if you choose to - the most challenging adverse circumstances & unfair situations - can create the best leaders.” She replies: “And, supervillains!” Touché. A new perspective & opportunity to develop sympathy.

Still my favorite Holly Gaff!

They’re baaaaack! Lone star ticks are active, hungry, and in pursuit across their occupied territory in Illinois. Want to see where we’ve found them with repeat quantitative dragging across the state for the past 4 years? Check out the IDPH maps here! go.illinois.edu/illinois-ticks

I have no doubt Alpha-gal Information is gonna deliver big time with their new YouTube channel!

“The Illinois Department of Public Health works with the Illinois Natural History Survey Medical Entomology Laboratory to conduct active tick surveillance.“

I passed my proposal defense today. Grateful to my committee members Daniel Schneider, Faranak Miraftab, Holly C. Tuten and Andrew Greenlee for their support, encouragement and guidance as I embark on this journey. #research #milestone #gratitude

My colleague Elliott Zieman EIU Bio Sciences woke up to this adult female American dog tick clinging to outside of window screen today! Feels kind of…creepy & menacing 🫢 Ticks are now out & active in #Illinois & seem ready to seize the day! Photo credits: Dr. E. Zieman #EIU

Tick Tip #2: Carry a lint roller when you are hiking, and roll it over your clothes frequently. I once rolled off >1000 larval ticks and not one managed to bite me! I learned this tip and more from following Holly C. Tuten.