Inside one particular lab on Montana State University’s campus in Bozeman, the most dangerous thing the scientists are working with is less than an inch long. And what makes it so dangerous is self-inflicted.
Scientists in the Cooley Lab at MSU in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology are infecting ticks with the bacteria borrelia, the primary cause of Lyme disease, which allows them to study how ticks transmit the disease to mice in the lab. But it can take some time.
“These ticks, they’re so slow when they’re feeding,” says Patrick Secor, one of the researchers in the Center for Biofilm Engineering lab and a professor of microbiology and cell biology at MSU. “They’ll attach and they’ll feed for days. The bacteria can be transmitted early on in that process, but it takes them a while to crawl around and find a spot they like and then bite and attach.”
Secor has been teaching at MSU for about a year, but his expertise in bacteriophages, or bacteria that infect viruses, spans across his undergrad, graduate and postdoctoral work at the school. He didn’t set out to study Lyme, but his work is advancing the way we see the disease and the immune system.
With more 90,000 U.S. cases reported in 2023 alone, Lyme disease is the most prevalent tickborne illness in the Northern Hemisphere, and its range expands every year. Part of that expansion is due to human or animal movement, which can carry Lyme-infected ticks across state lines as these creatures migrate. But another reason lies within warmer and wetter weather — two of a tick’s favorite things — that is part of an anthropocentrically changing climate.
Warmer temperatures and milder winters allow ticks to survive and move into new regions, Secor says. That means more people, pets and other animals are encountering them in uncommon places. Climate change also affects the length of tick seasons, according to Secor, which can increase Lyme exposure if people aren’t aware that the risk is expanding geographically.
A bacterial infection, Lyme disease is transmitted to humans via tick bites. Some animals, like rodents, are referred to as “reservoir species” that carry Lyme but haven’t been infected. A tick can bite a rodent, obtain the borrelia necessary to cause Lyme disease, and then bite an unassuming human.
But not everyone has the same response to Lyme. In fact, some people don’t even get infected. It all depends on a person’s immune system. Those who are impacted may experience chronic inflammation in the form of rheumatoid arthritis, or more internally around the heart and brain, which can lead to fatigue and achiness. Some neurological conditions, like forms of facial paralysis, have also been associated with the disease.
In May of this year, blacklegged ticks, or deer ticks, were identified for the first time in eastern Montana. These ticks are most common in the northeastern United States and have steadily expanded westward, according to Montana’s health department. With a new tick comes an increased potential for tickborne illnesses, though the health department stated in May that there was no known increased risk for Lyme disease in Montana.
Secor says the transmission was likely caused by movement. One of the deer ticks identified was discovered on a Bozeman hunter’s dog after a trip to the eastern part of the state. But in the eastern part of the country, the intensity and spread of ticks and tick-related diseases has a greater connection to climate change.
“You talk to anybody from the East Coast, and they’ll tell you right away if you bring up ticks, ‘You can’t go outside unless you tuck your pants into your socks,’” Secor says. “It’s just so bad in the East Coast, around the Pennsylvania and New York areas especially. So interactions like that is something that I noticed that I think has a climate link — ticks are now just a part of life in New England.”
The biggest impact of this expansion for Secor is an increased interest in this work and a consequent increase in funding, even within a time period when scientific research is being cut on staggering levels.
“It’s a problem and so people want to fund it,” Secor says. “Nobody likes ticks, nobody likes Lyme disease. We get support from both sides of the aisle here to study these types of diseases because I think it’s got the ‘ick factor.’”
Three Tips from Patrick Secor:
What should people know about Lyme disease and the changing climate?
- Warmer temperatures and milder winters are allowing ticks — which spread the bacteria that cause Lyme disease — to survive and move into new regions. That means more people and pets are encountering them in places where they weren’t common before.
- Climate change affects not only where ticks live, but also how early and how long they’re active each year. Longer tick seasons increase the odds of bites and infection, especially if people aren’t aware that Lyme disease risk now extends beyond traditional “hot spots.”
- Understanding how climate influences ticks and their vertebrate hosts helps researchers predict when and where Lyme disease will rise. This knowledge can guide prevention efforts like public awareness, treatment strategies and land-use planning to keep people safe as environments shift.
