Blacklegged tick (Ixodes pacificus) on a leaf, carrier of the Lyme disease, 2005. Image courtesy Centers for Disease Control (CDC) / James Gathany, William L. Nicholson. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
An app to track ticks and prevent Lyme disease has been launched in the Highlands, with funding from the European and UK space agencies.
The £1.1 million project lets the public report tick sightings and bites and help scientists monitor cases of Lyme disease.
Developed by International Disease Mapping Apps, a new company formed by Scotland’s Rural College, LymeApp uses satellite data to highlight where the disease has been detected across the northern hemisphere.
Data will be monitored by the Scottish Lyme Disease and Tick-borne Infections Reference Laboratory in Inverness, where developers hope to use the information to stop the spread of the infection.
Lyme disease can be spread to humans by ticks carrying the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria.
It can lead to a chronic, debilitating condition.
Approximately 3,000 cases of the infection are diagnosed a year in the UK.
Morven-May MacCallum, from the Highlands, was at the launch of the app and said the disease had left her bedridden for eight years, adding: “Lyme disease is an illness of unquestionable power and the damage it’s had on my life and for thousands like me is unmeasurable.
