Female #blacklegged #ticks infected with the #bacteria that causes #Lyme disease survive #winter substantially better than uninfected ticks.

The authors (Nabbout et al. 2023) note this result means that “…pathogens could work synergistically with #climate #change to promote host #range #expansion.”

OA 🔗 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1744-7917.13205

Blacklegged ticks and other ticks have been shown to be expanding their geographic ranges due to climate change and other factors:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5877023/