HHS Awards Funding to Improve Tick Control and Prevent Lyme Disease, Alpha-gal Syndrome and Other Tickborne Illnesses

WASHINGTON, D.C.—SEPTEMBER 28, 2026—The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced an ambitious new research initiative to address how the nation combats ticks and tickborne diseases, including Lyme disease and alpha-gal syndrome.

CDC and NIH awarded a total of nearly $3 million to two of CDC’s Centers of Excellence (COEs) in Vector-Borne Diseases to research innovative approaches for reducing tick populations, which, in turn, could lower people's encounters with ticks and the risk of tickborne disease.

“Tickborne diseases are spreading across America, and HHS is taking action to stop them at the source,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “CDC and NIH are targeting ticks where they feed and reproduce, testing new approaches to break their life cycle and reduce the risk to American families. Our goal is clear: fewer ticks, fewer bites, and fewer Americans suffering from Lyme disease, alpha-gal syndrome, and other tickborne illnesses.”

Once established, tick populations are very difficult to control because ticks are widespread, adaptable, and closely tied to wildlife. The projects will study whether providing acaricide-treated feed to deer or rodents will reduce tick populations at a local level. Acaricides are a type of chemical that kills ticks. This is a similar strategy to giving oral tick and flea preventatives to dogs to prevent flea and tick bites.

The initiative will focus on two areas:

• Acaricide-treated Feed for Deer: Researchers will provide deer with acaricide-treated feed to stop ticks from completing the blood meal they need to produce eggs. Deer sustain tick populations as a primary host for adult blacklegged (Ixodes scapularis) and lone star (Amblyomma americanum) ticks. The acaricide disrupts the tick life cycle — adult ticks feed on deer, then the females drop off to lay eggs. If the female tick is killed or sickened before she finishes feeding on a treated deer, she cannot complete the blood meal needed to produce eggs.
• “Super Baits” for Rodents: Researchers will pursue next-generation bait delivery systems targeted to rodents — key hosts for juvenile blacklegged ticks. Rodents are also reservoirs for the pathogen that causes Lyme disease. When ticks feed on rodents, they can get infected with pathogens from the animal and spread them when they feed on other wildlife or people. Bait boxes will deliver feed containing either acaricide, antibiotics, or a combination of acaricide and antibiotics. The dual-action “super baits” would both kill ticks feeding on rodents and reduce pathogen carriage in infected animals.

Addressing a Growing Public Health Threat

Tick bites can cause serious and sometimes deadly diseases. Every year, nearly 31 million people in the United States may be bitten by a tick. More than half a million Americans are diagnosed with tickborne diseases each year. Cases of tickborne disease are also on the rise, and ticks are spreading to new geographic areas.

Protecting people from tickborne diseases takes both personal prevention and community-level tick control. Public health agencies across the country are working together to develop innovative approaches that can reduce ticks on a larger scale.

“This effort is designed to move tick control forward by evaluating large-scale deployment of wildlife-targeted interventions,” said Lyle Petersen, director of CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases. “The ultimate goal is simple but ambitious: reduce the number of ticks to stop tick bites and tickborne diseases.”

“As tickborne diseases increase in the United States, NIH is committed to advancing research to better understand these illnesses and their immunological consequences,” said John H. Powers III, M.D., acting director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “We are focused on developing new tools to diagnose, treat, and ultimately reduce their impact on human health.”

CDC established the Centers of Excellence (COEs) in Vector-Borne Diseases in 2017 to advance prevention and control of vector-borne diseases through applied research, professional development, and collaboration between academia and public health. The pilot projects will be conducted by the New England Center of Excellence in Vector-borne Diseases and the Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Disease.

This work builds on successful U.S. efforts launched through CDC’s COEs in Vector-Borne Diseases and complements other ongoing work underway by CDC, public health partners, and federal agencies, strengthening the nation’s ability to prevent and respond to vector-borne diseases.