{"id":222751,"date":"2025-10-14T00:29:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T00:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/222751\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T00:29:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T00:29:21","slug":"potentially-dangerous-asian-long-horned-tick-found-on-local-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/222751\/","title":{"rendered":"Potentially dangerous Asian long-horned tick found on local dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new, invasive tick species \u2014 dangerous to humans, dogs, cats and cattle \u2014 may have been uncovered for the first time in Butler County thanks to an Oxford-based veterinarian.<\/p>\n

Dr. Chantel Raghu told the Journal-News<\/a> this week she was recently informed by officials at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that the tick larva she found on a Hamilton-area dog appears to be an Asian long-horned tick.<\/p>\n

Since 2017, the Haemaphysalis longicornis or long-horned tick has been moving from its initial infestation in the nation\u2019s eastern states and earlier this summer was detected in southeast Ohio.<\/p>\n

It can be hazardous to dogs, cats and cattle as well as humans and USDA officials have now said for the first time the species may be in Butler County.<\/p>\n

Raghu, who works at the Oxford Veterinary Hospital and specializes in infectious animal diseases, said in September a Hamilton woman brought in her dog whose scalp including the tiny larva, about the size of a speck of pepper.<\/p>\n

The larva has six legs but grow to sport eight legs as adults.<\/p>\n

The dog had stepped into a nest of the ticks while out walking and was quickly swarmed by them.<\/p>\n

Raghu, sent the tick to USDA officials who said while they are still examining the larva, preliminary findings confirm her suspicion that it is the Asian long-horned tick.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tick can carry diseases important to both dogs and humans like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and it can reproduce asexually which means that it can spread rapidly. This tick is especially devastating to cattle and it is important for farmers to be on the lookout,\u201d said Raghu.<\/p>\n

Stephen Young, an entomologist with an Iowa-based USDA lab, wrote Raghu recently noting: \u201cThis is likely the first record of Asian longhorned tick in Butler County, Ohio pending verification by other USDA sources.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a late June study<\/a> by the Ohio Department of Health (ODH), the single-digit cases of the tick had been reported in 14 southeast Ohio counties, with none being farther west of that region than Franklin County in Central Ohio and Pike and Ross counties in the state\u2019s south-central region.<\/p>\n

There were no ODH reports of the tick in Butler or other southwest and west-central counties.<\/p>\n

Adding to the problematic nature of the tick is a rapid reproduction rate, said Raghu, because the species\u2019 females are asexual and can reproduce without males.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe female doesn\u2019t have to mate before she can lay thousands of tick eggs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a completely different species that isn\u2019t found in our area. And from my talks with experts, this is not going away and will just become more prevalent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is that the ticks can carry really bad infectious diseases. When a tick bites and it is allowed to feed (on its host) for more than 24 hours, that is when whatever infectious disease it is harboring spreads through their saliva.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hamilton-based dog was treated and doing fine, she said.<\/p>\n

To avoid all species of ticks on dogs and cats, Raghu recommends using tick prevention drugs and other applications year around \u2013 not just in the warmer months \u2013 and to keep dogs and cats from walking in long grass and taller plants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new, invasive tick species \u2014 dangerous to humans, dogs, cats and cattle \u2014 may have been uncovered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[53998,3410,97,3412],"class_list":{"0":"post-222751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-9-on-your-side","9":"tag-cincinnati-news","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-wcpo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}