Skip to main content

Tick Surveillance

The District collects ticks from around the County and tests for several tick-borne diseases, including Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease, and Borrelia miyamotoi, which causes a similar, less-common tick-borne disease.

The results of these tests are reported as the minimum infection prevalence, or MIP. This is a way of describing the proportion of ticks tested that are infected with a particular pathogen. MIP is typically reported for each park surveyed (with the exception of parks where there were not enough ticks collected to complete testing), and for the parks as a whole.

A MIP of 2-3% is considered normal for our county, and does not indicate an elevated level of risk.

For more information on how the District collects ticks for disease surveillance, visit the Tick Control and Monitoring page.

Join our mailing list