Dr. Richard S. Ostfeld

Dr. Rick Ostfeld, a disease ecologist and national expert on Lyme disease ecology discusses: why ticks and tick-borne disease are on the rise, how wildlife influences our risk of getting sick, and ways that ecology can inform tick management and make the outdoors safer for people and pets.

Tiny ticks are a big problem. Anyone taking a walk in the woods is advised to do a tick check. Ticks infect more than 325,000 people with Lyme disease each year, and this number continues to rise.

Cary researchers are warning of a possible surge in tick-borne diseases in the United States this summer. A warming climate increases the likelihood that ticks will spread across the country - and that raises concerns of a public health crisis.

According to the Center for Disease Control, there are over 300,000 new cases of Lyme Disease each year in the United States. Is there a way to control its spread? 

The summer following a good mouse year, which is two summers following a good acorn year, we have found are the riskiest years for human exposure to Lyme.

As part of the PBS series, Global Health Frontiers, Cary's Rick Ostfeld and other wildlife sleuths work to unravel complex factors driving the explosive spread of Lyme disease in a yard-to-yard battle to try and turn the tide.

NYS Senator Sue Serino was joined by Cary's Rick Ostfeld  to announce that $600,000 has been secured to combat Lyme Disease in the State–$90,000 of which will go to the Cary Institute for Lyme Disease research.

Richard Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute and Dr. Richard Horowitz, author and noted Lyme disease expert answer questions and discuss information you need to know about Lyme disease.

Explore the ecology of Lyme disease with Rick Ostfeld, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute. For more than twenty years, Ostfeld and his research team have been investigating how environmental conditions influence the spread of tick-borne illness.

In the northeastern US, warmer spring temperatures are leading to shifts in the emergence of the blacklegged ticks that carry Lyme disease and other tick-borne pathogens.

With warmer temperatures comes more ticks and more of the illnesses they carry. CNN reports on Lyme and interviews Cary's Rick Ostfeld about his research on ticks and tick-borne illnesses.

Dr. Ostfeld presents a compelling case on the importance of ecology in controlling Lyme disease.

The number of tick-borne illnesses reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is on the rise. Lyme disease leads the pack, with some 35,000 cases reported annually. 

American Museum of Natural History documentary on Lyme disease featuring research conducted at the Cary Institute by Dr. Richard Ostfeld and his team. 

The next time you see a opossum playing dead on the road, try your best to avoid hitting it. Because it turns out that opossums are allies in the fight against Lyme disease.

Research has found that when humans modify the environment, fragmenting habitat and reducing species diversity, we are more likely to contract diseases normally confined to wildlife.