Ticks are found in every U.S. state, and different tick-borne illnesses are found in different parts of the country. Lyme — which is caused by four main species of bacteria — is the most common tick-borne disease. But ticks carry many other pathogens that can cause disease.
In this Answers from the Lab podcast from Mayo Clinic Laboratories, Dr. Elitza Theel, Ph.D., director of the Infectious Diseases Serology Lab at Mayo Clinic, talks with Bobbi Pritt, M.D., chair of the division of clinical microbiology at Mayo Clinic. They discuss the tests that detect tick-borne infections and how they work.