Colorado’s extensive trail networks, attracting millions of visitors annually, serve as critical habitats for ticks. Ticks in Colorado can transmit pathogens that cause diseases such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Colorado tick fever. Yet, our current understanding of the distribution of ticks in Colorado is limited, relying on historical and patchy data. While active sampling for ticks is effective, it is labor intensive. Alternatively, a community science program for tick surveillance at trailheads, where people and their companions are most likely to encounter ticks, may be an effective approach for improving our understanding of tick distributions and tick-borne disease risk in Colorado. 

We therefore developed and piloted an approach to invite the community to help with tick surveillance while they are recreating at hiking trails. We constructed tick collection stations, which consist of informational and instructional materials, surveys, materials for removing and submitting a tick, and a dropbox for submissions. These stations have been deployed at four trailheads in Larimer and Boulder County. We visit the stations weekly to collect submitted surveys and ticks as well as replenish supplies. These ticks will be tested for pathogens to improve our understanding of tick-borne disease risk.

We are evaluating the effectiveness of this community science approach for estimating tick-borne disease risk by comparing this data to data from our active tick surveillance efforts. We are also assessing the impact that this community science tick surveillance program has on the tick and tick-borne disease knowledge of hikers that interact with them. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and community engagement, this project embraces the One Health approach and prompts collective action against zoonotic diseases.

For questions or if you’re a community member,  land manager, or researcher interested in participating in our tick and tick-borne surveillance efforts, please email us: [email protected].

 *Our protocols have been reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Colorado State University (CSU).  If you have questions about your rights as a volunteer in research, you can contact CSU IRB ([email protected]; 970-491-1553).

Resources

Visit the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment’s website for more information about ticks and tick-borne diseases in Colorado.

Find a tick on different trails? You can provide the tick via CDPHE’s submission process to help with tick surveillance efforts.