Fairfield County has the highest density of adult blacklegged ticks according to the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.  Details of the first year of a statewide surveillance program for ticks and tick-borne diseases were released yesterday.  The program tested four types of ticks for five diseases.   It was paid for through a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The survey found Lyme disease in 46 percent of adult ticks and 15 percent of nymphs. 

The agriculture experiment station traditionally tests ticks that are submitted by the public but only tests for the three most prevalent diseases.  Chief entomoligist Kirby Stafford says the findings tend to be weighted toward New Haven and Fairfield counties because of the experiment station’s location in New Haven. 

According to the state Department of Public Health, more than 12-hundred residents in Connecticut contracted Lyme disease from infected deer ticks last year.