OTTAWA – The LaSalle County Health Department now participates as a partner in the I-TICK (Illinois Tick Inventory Collaboration Network) program that engages citizens across Illinois in helping gather data on ticks. Because ticks can carry a number of diseases that affect people and animals, the data and ticks collected through this program will help in surveillance to determine the risk of disease in our area and throughout Illinois.

Acting as one in a hub of partners, LaSalle County Health Department is recruiting participants to use collection kits to gather ticks for analysis. Anyone whose work or hobbies take them outdoors on a regular basis can sign up for a free I-TICK instruction kit and participate. Whether people are in town, hiking, working, or walking the dog, participants will collect ticks found on themselves or their pets or livestock, and record the location and date of collection.

The timespan for collection will be any five days over a two-week period from now through December. The participants will return the completed kits to LaSalle County Health Department to be forwarded to the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana for analysis.

Individuals wish to participate in the I-TICK data collection program should pick up an I-TICK collection kit at the LaSalle County Health Department. For additional information on the I-TICK program, call (815) 433-3366 or e-mail environmentalhealth@lasallecounty.org.