UK tick threats are shifting for pets, livestock, and people

CURRENT BRIEF VERSION: Ticks and tick-borne diseases are becoming a more fluid, harder-to-predict risk for UK animals and people. Recent UKHSA surveillance shows the country recorded 1,581 laboratory-confirmed Lyme disease cases in 2024, while officials continue to stress that confirmed counts understate the true burden. At the same time, UK tick surveillance data from 2021 to 2024 identified 27 tick species, confirmed that Ixodes ricinus remains the dominant Lyme vector, and documented ongoing detections of imported tick species, underscoring how travel, animal movement, and environmental change are reshaping exposure patterns. In companion animals, that shifting threat includes Lyme disease and canine babesiosis, with long-running concern that Babesia canis is becoming established in parts of the UK through Dermacentor reticulatus ticks. (gov.uk)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, the practical challenge is that tick risk is no longer confined to traditional hotspots or straightforward travel histories. APHA warned in May 2025 that practitioners in areas not typically associated with tick-borne disease were seeing outbreaks in newly affected farms, and said the geographical distribution of infection is likely to keep evolving with climatic and land-use change. That livestock signal fits a broader One Health pattern: research in outdoor workers in the northeastern US found 12% had ever been diagnosed with a tick-borne disease, with some reporting as many as 70 tick encounters over 6 months, illustrating how repeated exposure can become a serious occupational issue where tick habitats and farm work overlap. UKHSA’s Tick Surveillance Scheme now explicitly relies on veterinary submissions to help track changing tick dynamics, while ESCCAP guidance continues to frame effective tick control as the main tool for reducing babesiosis risk in dogs. That means prevention advice, travel histories, regional awareness, and early diagnostic suspicion all matter more than they did a decade ago. (gov.uk)

What to watch: Watch for more granular local surveillance, further evidence of non-endemic or imported ticks, and whether veterinary and public health agencies update risk messaging as tick exposure maps and case patterns continue to shift. Occupational exposure data and farm-level reports may also become more relevant as agencies refine advice for animals and the people working around them. (researchportal.ukhsa.gov.uk)