This intensive, two-week workshop was developed for students, state public health officials, and scientists involved in vector research. The workshop provides information on tick behavior, systematics, ecology, physiology, and associated pathogens, as well as methods for surveillance.

The Annual Tick Workshop is a collaboration between the U. S. National Tick Collection at the James H. Oliver, Jr., Institute for Coastal Plain Science (Georgia Southern University) and the CDC Southeastern Center of Excellence in Vector Borne Diseases (SECVBD) held annually at Georgia Southern University (Statesboro, GA). If we are to respond appropriately to vector borne disease threats in the United States, it is critical that existing skills and knowledge are conveyed to the next generation of public health entomologists. In the same vein, advanced research findings must find its way back in the form of comprehensible, operationally sound “best practices”. Professional training for individuals who have career trajectories aligned with public health entomology must have varying levels to permit the growth of the trainee intellectually and as a result the expansion of the discipline as a whole. SECVBD also helps offset costs associated with the Tick Workshop.

Workshop Participants learn about variety of topics :

• Tick systematics, identification, classification, population genetics, phylogeography (morphological and molecular taxonomy)
• Visit of the U.S. National Tick Collection
• Tick ecology, behavior
• Field collecting experience
• Tick anatomy, physiology
• Tick surveillance methods
• Spatial modeling of distribution
• Tick control
• Tick-Borne diseases: bacterial (Lyme, rickettioses, anaplasmoses, ehrlichioses), viral, and protozoic, including, clinical aspects, diagnosis, microbiology, ecoepidemiology