Lyme Disease

Ticks and Lyme

Tick Testing for Lyme

Analytical Services, Inc.
130 Allen Brook Lane
Williston, VT 05495
(800-723-4432)
http://www.analyticalservices.com/tick_testing/index.html

Tick Identification & Testing for the Bacterium Responsible for Lyme Disease
Ticks are responsible for a number of vector-borne diseases. There are more than 850 species of ticks, many of which have been shown to carry disease. If bitten by a black-legged tick ( Ixodes scapularis or “deer tick”) that carries Borrelia burgdorferi (a spirochete bacterium), humans and animals can become infected and possibly develop Lyme disease.

Analytical Services, Inc. (ASI) offers tick identification and testing services. Each tick is identified microscopically by gender, life stage and species if possible. ASI then tests the tick using a molecular procedure to determine whether the bacterium is present. This test uses Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to amplify the ospA gene in B. burgdorferi and gel electrophoresis to visualize the amplified DNA (if present).

Tick Identification and Testing: ~ $75.00

• The tick can be alive or dead for PCR testing.
• Place the tick in a small plastic bottle or sealed plastic bag and enclose in an envelope or package for shipping.
• ASI recommends sending the tick by overnight or priority carrier such as Fed-Ex or UPS. US Mail is discouraged due to potential disinfection practices in place.

Send the tick with your name, address, phone number (with area code) and pre-payment via o vernight courier. redit card, personal or bank checks are accepted. Ticks will not be processed without payment. Generally, insurance companies do not cover tick testing.

Allow ten business days for results. You will be called with positive screen results. All results will be mailed.

For a more detailed discussion of tick testing, tick removal and other helpful links, please go to

the Tick Testing section of our website which includes a Tick Testing Order Form.

Please note that tick testing for the bacterium responsible for Lyme disease is a “screening test” and, as such, cannot definitively rule out or confirm the presence of B. burgdorferi . (For example, negative results or non-detects may be the result of matrix interference or other inhibition that affects the PCR assay.) Also, tick testing results do not confirm or reject the development of Lyme Disease in the bitten person. (For example, the tick may carry B. burgdorferi but the bacteria may not have been transmitted to the person.)

Tick identification and PCR test results may provide important information to help you and your physician to determine, in combination with other information, the risk of contracting Lyme disease. Other important information you and your physician will need includes:

• If possible, a determination of how long the tick was attached.
• Did the tick appear to be full of blood when removed?

Note: ASI does not accept or test human or animal clinical samples (blood or tissue) for the presence of B. burgdorferi .