The range of ticks carrying Lyme continues to expand, making it important to be able to forecast patterns of risk to exposure in order to target those areas for vaccines, preventives measure and educational campaigns. Researchers with the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) published an open access article in May in PLOS One that describes the methods taken to create the predictive maps and their effectiveness.
Source: AAHA NEWStat, May 24, 2017.
The study suggests that in addition to annual testing, areas showing a risk for Lyme disease should also promote year-round use of acaracides in dogs and vaccinate dogs against Lyme disease before they are exposed to infected ticks.