For outdoor enthusiasts, the magic of spring is often tempered by the resurgence of chiggers, ticks and other nuisance insects. For researchers with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, the very pursuit of those creatures never really ends.
Kelly Loftin, extension entomologist for the Division of Agriculture, is part of a team including fellow Division of Agriculture researchers Emily McDermott, Elizabeth Smith and Jeremy Powell that has been tracking the spread of the Asian longhorned tick (Haemaphysalis longicornis) and two genotypes — genetic variants of a given organism — of the associated pathogen, Theileria orientalis, in cattle across Arkansas for several years. The study is funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant.
The Asian longhorned tick was first confirmed in the United States in 2017 and found in Arkansas in 2018. As of September 2025, it has been confirmed in 23 states, mostly in the eastern portion of the country but as far west as Oklahoma and Kansas, according to USDA…