Did you know that over 90% of the reported cases of this disease are autochthonous to the 10 states of Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin? What makes these states “tick?” Well the spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, is carried by ticks in which transmit the infection via numerous species of mammals such as deer, racoons, foxes, horses, opossums, and squirrels along with many others. These mammal hosts are indigenous to largely wooded areas in which the 10 states listed before are geographically accustomed to.
