Strategies and Partnerships for Preventing Tick-Borne Disease
Ticks are implicated in transmission of several serious diseases. While some species of ticks are found in most areas of the United States, some are more geographically limited. Prevention of tick-borne disease depends on a variety of factors, including awareness of the problem, understanding how to use preventive strategies such as use of insect repellents, avoiding tick-infested areas, and reducing tick populations. Learn more about ticks.
EPA has worked with our partners on issues surrounding strategies for prevention of tick-borne disease. The Public Health Pesticide Consortium, which includes 14 federal agencies, formed a Tick-Borne Disease-IPM workgroup to help further the progress on these issues.
Two conferences, held in 2011 and 2013, form the basis for current efforts on tick-borne disease prevention.
In 2011, EPA hosted a conference: Promoting Community IPM for Preventing Tick-Borne Diseases Conference. The conference captured the research and information surrounding prevention of tick-borne diseases from the perspective of government and non-government stakeholders. Key outcomes, summarized in Strategies, Research Priorities, and Partnerships for Community IPM to Prevent Tick-Borne Diseases, included the identification of successful strategies for community IPM programs, research priorities and knowledge gaps, and potential partnerships.
The federal TBD-IPM workgroup, a subgroup of the Public Health Pesticide Consortium, was formed as a result of this conference.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention co-hosted a two-day conference on Tick-Borne Disease (TBD) Integrated Pest Management (IPM) on March 5-6, 2013 with support of 14 federal agencies (TBD-IPM Workgroup). This conference brought together representatives of numerous federal, state and local agencies, academia, and stakeholders to discuss the current state of IPM for the management of tick-borne diseases.
The conference report and author-permitted presentations are included in the 2013 Report on the Tick-Borne Disease IPM Conference. Search EPA Archive
The 2013 conference accomplished the following:
- Facilitated completion of the the Federal Initiative: Tick-Borne Disease Integrated Pest Management White Paper
- Identify research strategies to support community IPM programs
- Facilitate collaboration among federal partners to support research initiatives
- Provide information on current tick IPM research
Since the 2013 Conference, EPA has been actively collaborating with partners (federal, state, local government, NGOs, growers) to identify the most cost effective approaches to reduce tick encounters and the incidence of tick borne diseases. The partners are actively sharing experiences on pest prevention strategies.