Ticks occur worldwide and besides the irritation they can cause there are serious tick-borne diseases that have severe clinical signs. Some of the diseases that you and your horse can get from a tick bite include:

Note that when both horses and humans contract similar diseases often it is differing species of the organism.

• Piroplasmosis (also known as Horse Tick Fever, Babesiosis, and Theileriosis)
• Ehrlichiosis, now identified as Anaplasmosis in the horse
• Lyme disease
• Rocky Mountain spotted fever (humans)
• Southern tick-associated rash illness (humans)
• Tick-borne relapsing fever (humans)
• Tick Paralysis (humans and horses?)
• Tularemia (humans)

This article discusses their life cycle and some of the things you can do to avoid you and your horse from getting bit. Links to tick-borne diseases of horses is provided.

Because diseases associated with tick exposure are specific to just one or two species of ticks you need two pieces of information to determine the risk you and your horse are at risk of infection: the specie of tick and what diseases are present in your area. However it should be noted that often whether a specific tick can transmit a specific disease is not known for sure. It is beyond the scope of this article to provide species identification and geographical incidence of tick borne disease world wide. Often you will find this information in the articles on the disease. To get good local information this should be discussed with your local doctor and veterinarian along with getting an idea of the incidence or frequency of a specific disease in your area so that you can get a handle on risk. Here are some common North American hard ticks:

Summary