Heartland virus is circulating in lone star ticks in Georgia, scientists at Emory University have found, confirming active transmission of the virus within the state. The journal Emerging Infectious Diseases published the findings, which include a genetic analysis of the virus samples, isolated from ticks collected in central Georgia.
The research adds new evidence for how the tick-borne Heartland virus, first identified in Missouri in 2009, may evolve and spread geographically and from one organism to another.
“Heartland is an emerging infectious disease that is not well understood,” says Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec, associate professor in Emory’s Department of Environmental Sciences and senior author of the study. “We’re trying to get ahead of this virus by learning everything that we can about it before it potentially becomes a bigger problem.”
Vazquez-Prokopec is a leading expert in vector-borne diseases — infections transmitted from one organism to another by the bite of a vector, such as a tick or mosquito.
Yamila Romer, a former post-doctoral fellow in the Vazquez-Prokopec lab, is first author of the new paper. Co-author Anne Piantadosi, assistant professor in Emory School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, conducted the genetic analyses.
Read more at Emory University
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