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

CURRENT FULL VERSION: The UK’s tick story is no longer just about seasonal Lyme risk in familiar rural areas. Surveillance and field reporting increasingly point to a moving target: established vectors are exposing more animals and people, imported species are still being detected, and veterinary concern now spans companion animals, livestock, and public health. UKHSA reported 1,581 laboratory-confirmed Lyme disease cases in 2024, and says that figure is likely an underestimate of the true burden in England. (gov.uk)

What’s changed is less a single outbreak than the overall shape of the threat. A 2025 UKHSA paper based on Tick Surveillance Scheme data from 2021 to 2024 recorded 3,182 tick records and 27 tick species across the UK. It confirmed that Ixodes ricinus, the main vector for Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis, remains the country’s most common tick. But it also highlighted continuing detections of imported species and the need for stronger surveillance in underrepresented regions, especially Scotland and Northern Ireland. UKHSA has paired that work with a new tick-bite incidence metric and heat map for England and Wales, aimed at more targeted local intervention. (researchportal.ukhsa.gov.uk)

For small animal practice, the concern goes beyond Lyme disease. UK veterinary commentary and ESCCAP guidance have emphasized that the number of ticks dogs encounter appears to be rising even where pathogen prevalence in attached ticks has changed only modestly. Vet Times recently noted that the prevalence of Borrelia spp. in Ixodes ticks attached to dogs increased only slightly between two studies, from 2.3% to 2.37%, but the total number of ticks increased, potentially raising overall exposure pressure. The same piece warned that imported Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks have been reported on dogs returning from Spain, Greece, and Africa, sometimes with household infestations. (vettimes.com)

Babesiosis remains the clearest example of how that risk can shift from imported to local. Concern over canine babesiosis in Essex dates back to 2016, when dogs with no travel history were diagnosed and experts linked the episode to the spread of infected Dermacentor reticulatus ticks and the loosening of pre-entry tick treatment rules under the EU pet travel scheme in January 2012. More recently, ESCCAP guidance has continued to stress that no strategic control programs exist for canine or feline babesiosis, and that risk reduction depends largely on effective tick control for dogs in endemic areas or those traveling through them. (theguardian.com)

The wider animal health picture suggests this is not just a companion animal issue. In a May 23, 2025 alert to vets, APHA said practitioners in parts of Great Britain not typically associated with tick-borne disease were reporting outbreaks on newly affected farms, some with high morbidity or mortality, especially involving tick-borne fever and babesiosis in cattle herds. APHA said the geographical distribution of infection is likely to continue evolving with climatic and land-use changes and encouraged practitioners to submit ticks to the UKHSA surveillance scheme. That aligns with broader European and UK veterinary commentary linking changing tick activity to climate, habitat, and animal movement. (gov.uk)

Expert and industry reaction has been consistent on one point: surveillance has to keep up. UKHSA describes its Tick Surveillance Scheme as dependent on submissions from the public, health practitioners, veterinary practitioners, and wildlife groups, and says it is used to detect non-native and rare tick species. Occupational exposure data from outside the UK adds a useful parallel. A recent Binghamton University-led survey of 53 people across 46 farms in southern Vermont found 12% reported ever being diagnosed with a tick-borne disease, participants reported an average of three tick encounters over the previous six months, and some reported as many as 70. The study also found a marginal association between grazing livestock and increased tick sightings, and highlighted how debilitating disease can become for farm workers, including one farmer who developed Lyme carditis and ultimately required open-heart surgery. While that study is US-based, it reinforces the same One Health message now surfacing in UK veterinary and public health reporting: changing tick ecology is affecting both animal and human risk, especially where outdoor work and tick habitat overlap. (gov.uk)

Why it matters: For veterinary teams, the main implication is a shift from static to dynamic risk assessment. Travel history still matters, but it’s no longer enough. Practices may need to think more actively about local tick ecology, imported parasites, changing livestock patterns, and the value of dogs as sentinels for broader human and animal exposure. Preventive conversations with pet parents should be more tailored, especially for dogs with outdoor lifestyles, dogs traveling within or outside the UK, and animals living near grazing land, woodland, or known tick habitats. Diagnostic suspicion also needs to stay broad when dogs present with fever, lethargy, anemia, thrombocytopenia, or shifting lameness in the right context. For mixed and farm practice, the emerging reports from newly affected areas also make staff and client education about occupational exposure more relevant, not just animal prevention. (vettimes.com)

What to watch: The next signals will likely come from updated UKHSA dashboard data, APHA field alerts, and whether imported or newly established tick species continue to appear in surveillance records. If those trends hold, expect more localized prevention messaging, more emphasis on submission of unusual ticks by veterinary practices, and a continued push to frame tick-borne disease as a shared veterinary-public health surveillance problem rather than a narrow seasonal nuisance. Farm-level exposure data and occupational health findings may also become more prominent as agencies refine advice for livestock systems and rural workers. (ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk)