The United States Department of Agriculture Northeast Area-Wide Tick Control Project: History and Protocol

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Abstract
The Northeast Area-wide Tick Control Project (NEATCP) was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a large-scale cooperative demonstration project of the USDA—Agricultural Research Service (ARS)–patented 4-Poster tick control technology (Pound et al. 1994) involving the USDA—ARS and a consortium of universities, state agencies, and a consulting firm at research locations in the five states of Connecticut (CT), Maryland (MD), New Jersey (NJ), New York (NY), and Rhode Island (RI). The stated objective of the project was “A community-based field trial of ARS-patented tick control technology designed to reduce the risk of Lyme disease in northeastern states.” Here we relate the rationale and history of the technology, a chronological listing of events leading to implementation of the project, the original protocol for selecting treatment, and control sites, and protocols for deployment of treatments, sampling, assays, data analyses, and estimates of efficacy.