The first record of an established population of Amblyomma maculatum (Acari: Ixodidae) in New Jersey, USA

In 2022, Brandon Musnoff of Salem County Mosquito Control found what appeared to be a new tick species in his county. Brandon Musnoff notified our staff of the finding, where we confirmed through morphological identification as an Amblyomma maculatum tick, also known as the gulf coast tick. We quickly surveyed the area for additional ticks and found that the area had enough ticks for it to be deemed “established” rather than just a one-off incident.

The tick is medically important because it vectors Rickettsia parkeri, a human pathogen. In addition, the tick also can cause American Canine Hepatozoonosis, a deadly condition caused by dogs ingesting a tick infected by the apicomplexan Hepatozoon americanum.

At the time, I was the manager of the New Jersey state tick surveillance program, working with several mosquito control districts, which included Salem County Mosquito Control, in collecting tick density information throughout New Jersey. As part of the surveillance program, we also worked with the state public health lab in testing the ticks to gather pathogen prevalence rate information for several tickborne pathogens, such as Powassan Virus, Ricketssia sp., Anaplasma, Babesia, and Borrelia sp..

The discovery highlights both the expansion of Amblyomma maculatum ticks in the northeastern U.S. and how mosquito control agencies involved in tick surveillance can greatly increase the sensitivity of state-wide tick surveillance programs in detecting novel vectors and pathogens.

Recommended citation: Musnoff BL, Cuadera MKQ, Birney MR, Zipper L, Nicholson W, Ayres B, Cervantes K, Woell D, Occi JL. The first record of an established population of Amblyomma maculatum (Acari: Ixodidae) in New Jersey, USA. J Med Entomol. 2024 Jul 12;61(4):1081-1085. doi: 10.1093/jme/tjae056. Erratum in: J Med Entomol. 2024 Jul 12;61(4):1091. doi: 10.1093/jme/tjae076. PMID: 38712431.
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