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An Outbreak of Human Tularemia Associated with the American Dog Tick, Dermacentor Variabilis

Gilbert S. Saliba^*, Fred C. Harmston, Ben E. Diamond, Carl L. Zymet, Martin I. Goldenberg^|| AND Tom D. Y. Chin^¶

During May, June, and July 1964, 12 cases of tularemia were diagnosed in South Dakota, all on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations. Epidemiologically, the outbreak was characterized by its involvement of Indian children with a mild form of the ulceroglandular type of tularemia.

Field investigations revealed unusually great tick activity. Nine of 52 lots of American dog ticks, Dermacentor variabilis, collected from vegetation and domestic animals were positive for Pasteurella tularensis. A high percentage of sera from dogs and horses was found to have tularemia agglutination antibody titers.

The occurrence of these cases in an area relatively free of tularemia in the past was a result of a sharp elevation in the population of arthropod vectors. The American dog tick was established as the principal vector of the disease. Common exposure to large tick populations located in the heavily vegetated pine ridges and river valleys explains the unusual epidemiologic pattern of infection.

^* Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, Kansas City Field Station, CDC, Kansas City, Kansas.

Entomologist, Disease Ecology Section, Technology Branch, Greeley, Colorado.

Director, Division of Laboratories, South Dakota State Department of Health.

Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, Epidemiology Branch, CDC.

^|| Bacteriologist, San Francisco Field Station, Technology Branch, CDC.

^¶ Chief, Kansas City Field Station, Epidemiology Branch, CDC, and Clinical Professor of Microbiology, University of Kansas School of Medicine.