Bergen County child may be first person in U.S. carrying exotic Longhorned tick

Scott Fallon | NorthJersey

Show Caption Hide Caption Mosquitoes Ticks NJ CDC new diseases Ticks, fleas and mosquitoes are causing more and more U.S. illnesses, as disease-causing bugs have spread their territories.

A Bergen County child is believed to be the first person in the United States to be found carrying an exotic tick that has been in the country for at least five years but was just discovered by New Jersey researchers last fall, scientists said Tuesday.

The 14-year-old girl wasn’t bitten by the Longhorned tick found on her chest in early July. Lab tests show the tick, an invasive species from Asia, was not carrying any pathogens such as the one that causes Lyme disease, according to scientists at Rutgers and at an independent lab in Colorado.

Since its discovery last fall on a sheep in Hunterdon County, the Longhorned tick has been found mostly on livestock and other animals and in grass. Finding it on a human is a first in the U.S., said Dina Fonseca, director of the Rutgers Center for Vector Biology.

"It's significant because we know it's been here for at least five years and we haven't had any known human encounters," Fonseca said. "We’re at the bottom of a big mountain in trying to understand the biology of this species in the U.S., so any new discovery in how it acts is important."

Fonseca said Tuesday that the discovery on the girl will help researchers like her Rutgers team to determine if the Longhorned tick can become a threat to humans.

Rutgers scientists recently determined that the Longhorned tick has been in the U.S. since at least 2013 after conducting a DNA analysis this spring of a tick specimen collected five years ago from a dog in Union County.

Story continues after gallery

Like the common deer ticks in New Jersey, Longhorned ticks are very small and can be difficult to detect on people or animals. They are dark brown and grow to the size of a pea when fully engorged with blood.

The tick can infest a wide range of animals from dogs and cats to livestock and wildlife. This is the primary way they are spread.

The tick is native to China, Korea and Japan and has become a major invasive pest in New Zealand, Australia and several Pacific islands.

It has been shown to spread diseases like SFTS virus and Japanese spotted fever among humans in Asia. But how it will act on another continent with other pathogens not found in Asia is the primary concern for scientists.

Identifying the tick took a circuitous route from Bergen County to Colorado to the Rutgers campus

The tick was found on the belly of the 12-year-old girl in early July after she spent the day in Leonia and Edgewater. The girl’s mother gave it to Gloria Kim, a neighbor who has given lectures locally on tick prevention after her son contracted Lyme disease.

Kim sent the arachnid to a Ticknology, a laboratory in Fort Collins, Colorado, that specializes in testing ticks for a variety of pathogens that can lead to debilitating diseases.

The tick did not test positive for any pathogens, said Heather Szerlong, CEO of Ticknology. But Szerlong said she had never seen a tick like it before.

Kim sent a photo of the tick to James Occi, a graduate student at Rutgers University who specializes in ticks. He couldn’t identify it.

Story continues after podcast

Szerlong eventually sent the tick's DNA to Fonseca's lab at Rutgers. It was identified as a Longhorned tick on Friday.

"What’s important and what’s unique is that it was found on a child who had no interaction with livestock," Szerlong said. "They were just going about their normal day. That’s unique. Some have been saying this tick is a farmer’s problem. It’s a livestock problem. Well, not really."

This is the second Longhorned tick found in Bergen County this month. Another was found at the at Soldier Hill Golf Course in Emerson during a routine collection of ticks by the county.

It has also been found in Union, Middlesex and Mercer counties along with nearby Westchester County, New York. It has also been found in North Carolina, Virginia and Arkansas.

"Right now it's primarily a livestock biter," Fonseca said of the Longhorned tick. "It’s not surprising that when people pass by, that this tick will hitchhike. Is this tick going to bite us? Is this tick going to spread disease? We're still learning."