Governor’s Community Innovation Challenge Awards $111K for State’s First ‘Tick-Borne Disease Network’
Governor’s Community Innovation Challenge Awards $111K for State’s First ‘Tick-Borne Disease Network’
Funds support tick testing by UMass Amherst laboratory free to residents of 32 towns
AMHERST, Mass. – Massachusetts Secretary of Administration and Finance Glen Shor announced today that the Bedford, Mass. Board of Health, on behalf of 31 other partner towns, will receive $111,000 from the governor’s Community Innovation Challenge Grant program to form the state’s first Tick-Borne Disease Network (TBDN) for surveillance of ticks and tick-borne diseases. The announcement was at the Massachusetts State House.
Towns will use the Laboratory of Medical Zoology (LMZ) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which will receive, identify, test and report the occurrence of ticks and associated diseases to residents, their boards of health and the state Department of Public Health. Medical zoologist Stephen Rich, LMZ director, helped to craft the proposal for Bedford. Read more.