Knowledge of Ticks and TBDs
Only 38.7% (24/62) of veterinarians responded correctly that nymphs and adults were the most likely life stages of blacklegged (Ixodes scapularis ), lone star (Amblyomma americanum ), and American dog ticks (Dermacentor variabilis ) to be found on horses compared to the other possible answers. Over 20% (13/62) of respondents thought only adult ticks were the most likely life stage and 6.5% (4/62) thought only nymphs. Over 11 and 17% (7/62 and 11/62, respectively) of veterinarians thought larvae or larvae and adults were the most common, respectively (Figure 4).
Veterinarians are the point of contact to diagnose and treat diseases and conditions exhibited by horses, including tick-associated conditions. However, while 75.0% (45/60) of veterinarians could identify a blacklegged tick adult correctly, only 51.8% (29/56) of veterinarians correctly identified that blacklegged ticks were associated with Lyme disease (Table 1). Gulf coast ticks (Amblyomma maculatum ) and American dog ticks were correctly identified by 56.9% (33/58) and 53.3% (32/60) of respondents, respectively. However, only 11.3% (7/54) and 29.0% (18/57) of respondents correctly associated these two species with tick paralysis, respectively. Over 32% (20/55) of respondents incorrectly thought that lone star ticks were also associated with tick paralysis in horses. On the other hand, a similar percentage of respondents correctly associated Gulf Coast ticks (33.9%, 19/54) and American dog ticks (26.8%, 15/57) with piroplasmosis. However, veterinarians were more likely to associate Gulf Coast ticks with no diseases or conditions (47.9%, 23/54) over the other species. Lone star ticks were correctly identified by 64.5% (40/62) of respondents. Interestingly, only 12.7% (7/55) of all veterinarians were very confident that they could correctly identify a tick to species and 45.5% (25/55) were not confident at all. More respondents were confident in correctly correlating ticks with region-specific tick-associated conditions (26.3%; 15/57), but most were only somewhat confident (36.8%, 21/57) or not confident at all (36.8%; 21/57).