Farmers’ Knowledge and Practices About Ticks and Tickborne Diseases in Illinois

ABSTRACT

Objective

Tickborne diseases (TBDs) in Illinois have increased in recent years. A growing body of literature indicates that the risk of exposure to ticks and tickborne diseases is higher among outdoor workers, including farmers. However, information is lacking on awareness of ticks and tickborne diseases among this demographic. This study aimed to determine the knowledge and awareness among Illinois farmers regarding ticks and tickborne diseases.

Methods

A Knowledge, Attitudes & Prevention practices (KAP) survey was developed and administered to capture information regarding farmers’ knowledge and attitudes about ticks and TBDs. Tick drags were conducted on a subset of properties as an incentive to complete the survey and to compare farmers’ knowledge or expectations of ticks on their land with ticks collected.

Results

Fifty farmers participated in the survey, and 17 allowed tick drags. Only 60% of respondents had at least moderate knowledge about ticks gained through family and friends (56%), medical and healthcare personnel (48%), and the internet (44%). Responses varied by the type of commodity produced by the farmer. Fifty percent of participants reported knowledge about the blacklegged tick, 34% for the American dog tick, and 42% for the lone star tick; this knowledge also varied by farm type. Most farmers (54%) agreed that preventative behaviors could protect against tickborne diseases. Self-reported knowledge was significantly and directly associated with knowledge scores (p < .001).

Conclusion

Knowledge of ticks and TBDs was lower among crop farmers than beef or mixed commodity farmers, but farmers generally have moderate knowledge of tick species in Illinois. Many participants expressed low concern over contracting a TBD, but many were also dissatisfied with the level of tick prevention measures that they follow. These results can be utilized to fill in knowledge gaps and develop informational materials to help farmers protect themselves against ticks and TBDs.

KEYWORDS:

• Tickborne diseases (TBDs)
• farmers
• knowledge gaps
• KAP survey

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Josie Rudolphi, Assistant Professor in Agricultural & Biological Engineering, for assistance during the survey development phase of the study. We would like to thank the University of Illinois Extension, all the farmers, contacts, and collaborators in this study who helped distribute the survey information and helped us recruit participants. We want to thank Heather Kopsco who helped in the tick-dragging and taxonomic identification of the ticks. We also want to thank everyone who helped during the tick-dragging phase of the study, survey development and pre-testing phases of this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The survey dataset has been deposited in the Illinois Data Bank, which can be found here: https://doi.org/10.13012/B2IDB-3988796_V1.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/1059924X.2023.2199003

Additional information

Funding

A 2020 University of Illinois Extension Collaboration Grant funded this work. This work is part of Sulagna Chakraborty’s doctoral dissertation and was also supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch project 1026333 (ILLU-875-984).