ZANESVILLE, Ohio — Ohio University Zanesville recently hosted a workshop titled “Exploring the Ecology of Lyme Disease” as part of the Appalachian Ohio Tick Project, “the goal of which is to engage high school students and their teachers in important research on tick-borne diseases.”
A press release from the university said the participants received theoretical and practical training on ticks and the diseases they transmit, such as Lyme disease, which affects 450,000 Americans each year.
“In the upcoming 2024-2025 school year, teachers and students from nine high schools and seven counties in southeast Ohio will study blacklegged tick population densities in local forests, extract and test tick DNA for the pathogen that causes Lyme disease, and reach out to their communities to share project results and teach about ticks, tick-borne diseases, and how to protect against them,” Kip Brady, a workshop facilitator, said in the press release.
The workshop was led by Dr. Risa Pesapane of Ohio State University and Kip and Jody Brady of New Philadelphia High School on Ohio University’s Zanesville campus.
“We are grateful for the support of Ohio University Zanesville and their willingness to host this workshop,” Kip Brady said in the press release. “The Zanesville campus is the perfect venue for this workshop because it is centrally located between participating schools and offers nearby wooded areas for practicing tick inspection techniques as well as modern laboratory facilities for analyzing tick DNA.”
Lyme disease is caused by the spirochete bacteria Borrelia burgdorferia and is transmitted by blacklegged ticks, according to the press release, which says it is a “poorly understood public health problem in Ohio.”
“We need such an important workshop to give our teachers more background on the science of Lyme disease, and I hope this workshop will be the start of a series of other workshops on other diseases as well,” said Dr. Mohannad Al-Saghir, associate professor of biological sciences at Ohio University Zanesville, in the press release. “I hope to expand it nationwide.”
