MAINE PUBLIC • April 28, 2025
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst say they've discovered a new bacteria in rabbit ticks in Maine that's related to the spotted fever pathogen. Microbiology professor Stephen Rich, who is also executive director of the New England Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases, said the bacteria was discovered in rabbit ticks from a residential backyard. The finding prompted researchers, in collaboration with the University of Maine, to test more rabbit ticks. Out of nearly 300 collected from nine counties, 6% tested positive for the pathogen. "Our concern is that it stay that it stay rare and in rabbit ticks and that it not spill over into black-legged ticks or deer ticks or other things that more frequently feed on people," Rich says.