News in Brief Climate

Climate change may spread Lyme disease

Balmy seasons have already expanded the territory of the ticks that carry the bacteria

GETTING AROUND  Ixodes scapularis (shown), a deer tick that spreads Lyme disease, may reach new locations because of global warming.

Scott Bauer/ARS/USDA

By Beth Mole

Global warming may be a boon for the ticks that transmit Lyme disease.

In the last few decades, the deer tick Ixodes scapularis has fanned out across the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, with the bacteria that cause Lyme disease in tow.