Welcome to the Troublesome Ticks-DSCATT Research Project.

This website contains all the information you need to find out about this important research which aims to discover the cause(s) of Debilitating Symptom Complexes Attributed to Ticks (DSCATT) in Australia. Here you can find information on how you can join the study if you have been bitten by a tick,  information for medical personnel (if you are a doctor or nurse), or if you are working at a pathology collection centre, advice about which samples to collect. 

We enrol people into the study when they are currently bitten by a tick – i.e. if you have a tick attached to you now! However, if you have been bitten by a tick within the past 72 hours and already removed it from your skin, we would like to hear from you to discuss your potential eligibility to join the study. If that is the case, please do not discard the tick as we need it for our research.

This study is not for people who were bitten by a tick in the past (i.e. more than 72 hours ago). 

There is also a list of frequently asked questions about the project.

Find out more:

Follow the links below to find out more.

In the Media

Featured
ABC Catalyst - Toxic Ticks
ABC Catalyst - Toxic Ticks

Video by the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

Do Australian ticks pose a greater health risk than we thought? For people suffering from Lyme-like disease, it's a controversial mystery that science has so far been unable to resolve.

For the first time, microbes inside native Aussie ticks are being probed, leading to new discoveries which may reveal the causes of unexplained illnesses in the future.

Read More →