MEADVILLE, Pa. - Senator Michele Brooks is teaming up with Allegheny College and East Stroudsburg University to take on tickborne illnesses through new, multi-year tick mitigation study.

As infection rates reach crisis levels, Senator Brooks has been collaborating with the East Stroudsburg University's Tick Research Lab, along with Allegheny College to develop a pioneering strategy to attack the growing tick population and the carriers transporting ticks causing Lyme and other diseases.

"The solution must be multi-faceted and must include reducing the tick population, combatting the transfer of tick-related diseases and providing broader insurance coverage for both testing and treatments," Senator Brooks said. 

Brooks added that this new partnership is "one innovative tool that can help bring us closer to identifying how to reduce the tick population and reduce the transmission of tick-related diseases."

Senator Brooks has secured state funding for the project which will be conducted in multiple Pennsylvania counties including Mercer County.

"This funding will allow [research lab] workers to evaluate the use of tick mitigation strategies in reducing tick and tickborne illness in three regions of Pennsylvania including the northwest," said Pennsylvania Tick Research Lab Director, Nicole Chinnici.

The study will require a research technician to drag the wood line area with a corduroy cloth to collect ticks that may be in the area followed by setting mouse traps 10 meters into the wood line.

The traps will be in place for three days every 12 weeks until the end of the project. From there, blood samples will be taken from the ticks and mice to monitor the infection of tickborne illnesses.

Senator Brooks and Chinnici encourage anyone who has removed a tick from themselves or a loved one to place it in a plastic bag and send it to the PA Tick Research Lab free of charge.

Mailing instructions can be found here.