Ticks are very effective disease vectors, connecting humans to diseases in wild reservoirs like Lyme disease. Although mammals commonly serve as hosts for ticks, they typically travel relatively short distances before ticks complete their blood meal and drop off.
However, parasitizing birds, especially migratory birds, allows them to travel very long distances.
For example, the Asian long-horned tick was first detected in New Jersey in 2017 and has since been found in 14 other states.
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