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. 2024 May 26;15(6):385.
doi: 10.3390/insects15060385.

Evidence of Incomplete Feeding Behaviors among South Carolina Tick Populations

Kayla E Bramlett  1 , Laura E Witt  1 , Madeleine M Meyer  1   2 , Kia Zellars  1 , Kyndall C Dye-Braumuller  1 , Melissa S Nolan  1   3
Affiliations

Evidence of Incomplete Feeding Behaviors among South Carolina Tick Populations

Kayla E Bramlett et al. Insects. .

Abstract

Dynamic environmental conditions, such as climate change and host availability, have greatly influenced the expansion of medically relevant tick vectors into new regions throughout the southeastern United States of America. As tick populations migrate into new areas, it has been suggested they can exhibit a phenomenon known as incomplete feeding. With this phenomenon, tick vectors feed on more than one host at each life stage, thus increasing the likelihood of pathogen transmission. Although this behavior is not well understood, it presents an important threat to human health. Here we present evidence of incomplete feeding behaviors in multiple tick species in South Carolina. Engorged, blood-fed female ticks were collected from feral dogs at animal shelters across South Carolina in 2022. All ticks were tested for human blood meals using rapid stain identification blood tests. Approximately one third (33.78%) of all ticks tested positive for a human blood meal, with various patterns seen across species, geographic location, and collection month. The results of this pilot study follow the current national trend of increasing rates of tick-borne disease incidence in the southeastern United States of America and warrant further investigation into the relationship between seasonality, geographic distribution, species, and incomplete feeding among tick populations in South Carolina.

Keywords: blood meal; host; human; incomplete feeding; pathogen; tick-borne; ticks; vector-borne.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the study’s design, the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data, the writing of the manuscript, or the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Geospatial distribution of percent mixed blood meal-positive adult ticks by county.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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