Invasive tick seen in Northern Missouri for first time

Oct. 4—An invasive tick variety spreading throughout the U.S. now has been seen in Northern Missouri.

The Asian longhorned tick is viewed as a particular risk to cattle and has been found on some other livestock.

The ticks' mating habits, which include laying thousands of eggs at a time, mean they also can spread quickly, said Carissa Ganong, a biology professor at Missouri Western.

"That's a very different aspect of biology between our native ticks versus this one, is that the longhorned ticks can reproduce here, what's called parthenogenesis, where the females can produce thousands of eggs without a male being involved," she said. "This allows them to establish and spread to new areas very quickly because mating isn't necessary."

The tick can carry a disease causing jaundice and stillbirth among cattle, though no cases of this disease have currently been reported in Missouri, Ganong said.

"There's not a very high risk of diseases from these ticks in Missouri, but I think we need to be aware that this is a potential looming threat in the future," she said.

The disease, bovine theileriosis, exhibits similar symptoms to a bacterial disease called anaplasmosis that is common with cattle in Missouri. While not detected in the state yet, theileriosis could create an "additional economic burden to cattle producers," according to a press release from the University of Missouri.

Deciphering them apart from native ticks, like the brown dog tick, can be difficult since the longhorned tick looks similar, Ganong said.

"The size depends on the feeding stage, so they can (be) the size of a sesame seed or smaller when they haven't fed," she said. "Then, the engorged adults can be the size of a pea, so they can get to be quite large, and they can be very hard to distinguish from some of our native ticks."

Alex Simone can be reached at alex.simone@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter at @NPNOWSimone.