Jean Tsao
Professor Michigan State University
- East Lansing MI
Jean Tsao has more than 20 years of experience studying the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, and its vector, the blacklegged tick
Media
Biography
Industry Expertise
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News
MSU researchers help develop mobile app to identify potential Lyme disease-carrying ticks
WKAR online
2022-08-10
Picture this.
You’re walking through the woods when you brush up against some tall grass, or maybe you wandered off trail momentarily.
You head home, but the next day, you notice a black speck on your arm. It’s a tick.
Tick season is here: How to avoid them, what to know
Lansing State Journal online
2023-05-26
LANSING — Ewwww, ticks.
They fed on dinosaurs, and they've evolved to feed on dogs, deer and other forest critters, and human beings, causing illnesses like Lyme disease and anaplasmosis that mean fevers and headaches.
In the last decade, they've become so established in Michigan that Michigan State University's Howard "Bug Man" Russell and his colleague Jean Tsao, an MSU fisheries and wildlife associate professor who has been studying ticks since the '90s, said we might as well get used to the prehistoric-looking arthropods if we want to enjoy the best of Michigan's outdoors.
Simple app helps you avoid ticks this summer
MSU Today online
2021-06-02
It’s summer again, and with COVID restrictions lifting, people are reconnecting with some fun in the sun. As outdoor activities increase, Jean Tsao, an associate professor at Michigan State University, wants the public to be aware of a different disease threat — Lyme disease spread by ticks. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 300,000 people contract Lyme disease each year.
Journal Articles
Genome resequencing reveals population divergence and local adaptation of blacklegged ticks in the United States
Molecular EcologySean D. Schoville, Russell L. Burke, Dahn-young Dong, Howard S. Ginsberg, Lauren Maestas, Susan M. Paskewitz, Jean I. Tsao
2024-07-04
Tick vectors and tick-borne disease are increasingly impacting human populations globally. An important challenge is to understand tick movement patterns, as this information can be used to improve management and predictive modelling of tick population dynamics. Evolutionary analysis of genetic divergence, gene flow and local adaptation provides insight on movement patterns at large spatiotemporal scales.
Evaluating spatial and temporal patterns of tick exposure in the United States using community science data submitted through a smartphone application
Ticks and Tick-borne DiseasesPallavi A. Kache, Gebbiena M. Bron, Sandra Zapata-Ramirez, Jean I. Tsao, Lyric C. Bartholomay, Susan M. Paskewitz, Maria A. Diuk-Wasser, Maria del Pilar Fernandez
2023-07-01
Research initiatives that engage the public (i.e., community science or citizen science) increasingly provide insights into tick exposures in the United States. However, these data have important caveats, particularly with respect to reported travel history and tick identification. Here, we assessed whether a smartphone application, The Tick App, provides reliable and novel insights into tick exposures across three domains — travel history, broad spatial and temporal patterns of species-specific encounters, and tick identification.
The Contribution of Wildlife Hosts to the Rise of Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases in North America
Journal of Medical EntomologyJean I Tsao, Sarah A Hamer, Seungeun Han, Jennifer L Sidge, Graham J Hickling
2021-04-22
Wildlife vertebrate hosts are integral to enzootic cycles of tick-borne pathogens, and in some cases have played key roles in the recent rise of ticks and tick-borne diseases in North America. In this forum article, we highlight roles that wildlife hosts play in the maintenance and transmission of zoonotic, companion animal, livestock, and wildlife tick-borne pathogens.
Possible Effects of Climate Change on Ixodid Ticks and the Pathogens They Transmit: Predictions and Observations
Journal of Medical EntomologyNicholas H Ogden, C Ben Beard, Howard S Ginsberg, Jean I Tsao
2020-10-28
The global climate has been changing over the last century due to greenhouse gas emissions and will continue to change over this century, accelerating without effective global efforts to reduce emissions. Ticks and tick-borne diseases (TTBDs) are inherently climate-sensitive due to the sensitivity of tick lifecycles to climate. Key direct climate and weather sensitivities include survival of individual ticks, and the duration of development and host-seeking activity of ticks. These sensitivities mean that in some regions a warming climate may increase tick survival, shorten life-cycles and lengthen the duration of tick activity seasons.
