In this episode, Lauren talks with Dr. Kathryn Dalton, a veterinarian turned researcher and assistant professor at the University of Iowa College of Public Health, about the rise of vector borne diseases. Dr. Dalton explains how environmental changes are expanding the reach of ticks and mosquitoes, what that means for both people and pets, and how the One Health approach connects human, animal, and environmental well-being.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the student hosts, guests, and contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the University of Iowa or the College of Public Health.

Lauren Lavin:

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Plugged Into Public Health. I’m Lauren Lavin, and if it’s your first time with us, welcome. We’re a student-run podcast that explores major issues in public health and how they connect to the world around us. Today, we’re joined by Dr. Kathryn Dalton, an assistant professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Iowa College of Public Health. Dr. Dalton’s journey is anything but traditional. She began her career as a veterinarian, before pursuing her MPH and PhD at Johns Hopkins, where she fell in love with public health and One Health research.

In this episode, Dr. Dalton helps us understand how changing climates and ecosystems are shaping the rise of vector-borne diseases, those transmitted by ticks, mosquitoes, and other insects. We’ll talk about what makes these diseases a growing concern, how they connect to environmental change, and what simple prevention steps can make a big difference in protecting people, pets, and the community. Now, let’s get plugged into public health. Plugged into Public Health is produced and edited by the students of the University of Iowa College of Public Health, and the views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of student hosts, guests, and contributors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the University of Iowa or the College of Public Health.

Well, Dr. Dalton, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. Could you start off sharing a little bit about your educational background, what you do here at the University of Iowa?

Kathryn Dalton:

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me here today. I’m very excited to talk about one of my favorite topics. So yes, my name is Dr. Kathryn Dalton, and I’m an assistant professor here in the College of Public Health, specifically in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health. And so I would say I have a unique, non-traditional background and experience in public health, which I’m finding now, talking to a lot of other experts, is not un-frequent.

Lauren Lavin:

No, that’s something… And I love asking people this question, especially in this building, because it’s so interesting how people end up here.

Kathryn Dalton:

Absolutely, absolutely. I feel like the uncommon path is now common.

Lauren Lavin:

The common, yeah.

Kathryn Dalton:

Exactly.

Lauren Lavin:

Just non-standardized, maybe that’s the word.

Kathryn Dalton:

Yes, I like that better. So, my undergrad actually focused a lot on anthropology and conservation, and that inspired me to actually go to veterinary school. So I am a practicing, or was a practicing veterinarian.

Lauren Lavin:

No way.

Kathryn Dalton:

Yes, I know. Fun little background.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah.

Kathryn Dalton:

And at the time when I entered vet school, I thought I wanted to go into wildlife conservation. However, it was in my first year of vet school, that I took a public health class and really fell in love with this area. That’s where I learned about the concept of One Health, which is a systems-thinking approach to really understanding how the health of humans is explicitly tied to the health of animals, plants, the ecosystem, and the environment overall. And that was really my “Aha” moment, and what I wanted to center my whole career on.

Lauren Lavin:

So did you practice as a vet?

Kathryn Dalton:

I did. I practiced for a few years, really enjoyed it, got a lot of leadership skills, as well as communication skills with the general public. But I knew I wanted to go back into public health, and specifically research. But in order to do that, I knew I needed more advanced training, so decided to pursue my Master’s of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, focusing on zoonotic infectious diseases, and that’s where I got introduced to vector-borne diseases.

Lauren Lavin:

Incredible. And then you also went on to get your PhD?

Kathryn Dalton:

I did, yep. I ended up going into Hopkins for their accelerated 11-month, almost one-year program, and ended up staying there for seven, almost eight years.

Lauren Lavin:

Oh, my goodness. Is that how long it took to complete your PhD?

Kathryn Dalton:

Yeah. So a few different things, I did a MPH there, stayed for what they called a clinical fellowship, which I consider kind of a one-year research gap year, before pursuing my PhD. And then I defended my PhD during the beginning of the pandemic, and so because of everything shutting down, and the hiring freeze, ended up just staying at Hopkins for a one-year postdoc before transitioning to NIH, where I did a postdoc at the National Institute Environmental Health Sciences for two and a half years, before coming here, to this lovely area in Iowa.

Lauren Lavin:

So safe to say you have been in a lot of years of school?

Kathryn Dalton:

Yes, that is a very good observation. I finally have a real job now.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, you probably feel like a grown-up now.

Kathryn Dalton:

Yes, exactly.

Lauren Lavin:

Did you practice veterinary medicine while you were doing your PhD, or no?

Kathryn Dalton:

I did. I did.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay.

Kathryn Dalton:

So not full-time obviously, but I did part-time relief work, both during my master’s and my PhD program, which was really great being able to utilize the skills that I was learning in the classroom and bringing them to my clients.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, what a unique set. I can’t imagine that there’s many people like you out there, to be quite honest.

Kathryn Dalton:

There is a small little group of us public health veterinarians. We are a strong, proud niche. But obviously, there is a lot of other clinicians, both MDs, nurses, pharmacists, that I think do make their way into public health, and I think really benefit the research and science community overall.

Lauren Lavin:

Absolutely. So what drew you to the study of specifically vector-borne diseases in the first place?

Kathryn Dalton:

Yes. So I was fortunate enough to have my MPH practicum be on vector-borne diseases, specifically tick-borne diseases, with a focus on Lyme disease. And so this was a really interesting project that I started working with CDC, with a expert there on tick-borne diseases, and she was initiating a new program, where she wanted to train university students, specifically public health students, to be community leaders, and enhance awareness and prevention measures in the greater community. So I helped to start that group at Hopkins as part of my practicum, and it really took a great “Train the trainer” model, where these experts from CDC came and gave us a two, three-day long boot camp of vector-borne disease background, the etiology, all the different transmission pathways, and spending a lot of time on prevention measures. And then we went out into the community, chatting with people at farmer’s markets, gardening events, dog parks, anywhere people spent time outdoors, and just chatting with them and raising awareness of the risk of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, and then really talking about how they can keep their friends and family and themselves safe from these very severe diseases.

We had a big focus on children as well too, so got the chance to visit classrooms and summer camps, and that was really a lot of fun, to engage with these vulnerable populations.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. So was this something that you’d also experienced in your veterinary career before getting your MPH? Is it common in the pet world?

Kathryn Dalton:

Yes, it is. And in fact, actually, that’s one of the areas that I focus on for prevention measures, is preventing it in your pets. Because we know that dogs and cats, and other outdoor animals that we keep as pets, can carry these vectors into your home, which then can offer an exposure point for yourself. And so keeping them up to date on flea and tick prevention, vaccinating your dogs against Lyme disease are always that you can help minimize the exposure to yourself. And so that was one area that I talked with my clients a lot about, and obviously, has direct implications to their own health, so that was one of my favorite things to chat about.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. It’s so interesting to see how it all weaves together.

Kathryn Dalton:

It exactly does. That’s all One Health.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah. So why are vector borne diseases such an important and growing public health concern? Or is it growing in the US right now?

Kathryn Dalton:

Yeah, I mean it is, absolutely.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay.

Kathryn Dalton:

You hit the nail on the head. And it is a big concern because we know that our climate is changing, and that is changing the distribution and the habitat of these vectors. We’re seeing that very clearly in the case of mosquito-borne diseases, where we’re seeing locally acquired cases in the US, while 10 to 15 years ago, that was not the case whatsoever. And so we’re seeing more disease cases here in the US, in temperate regions, while before, it was just centered in tropical areas. But we’re seeing this case in ticks as well too, where diseases, like Lyme disease, used to only be centered in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic region, and now we are certainly seeing it here in the Midwest. It’s actually an area that’s growing rapidly, as well as on the Canadian border as well too.

Lauren Lavin:

Are ticks present in all climates in the US or are they localized?

Kathryn Dalton:

They do tend to be localized based on the different tick species and genus.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay.

Kathryn Dalton:

And we do know that the different tick species will transmit different types of diseases. However, there are ticks found in every state in the continental US, and ticks can transmit a variety of different bacterial and viral pathogens that can affect human health.

Lauren Lavin:

Besides just Lyme disease?

Kathryn Dalton:

Besides just Lyme disease.

Lauren Lavin:

Okay. Because I feel like that’s what you hear about, is ticks, Lyme disease.

Kathryn Dalton:

Absolutely. And that certainly is the one we see most commonly in the US, however, that’s certainly not the only one. There are ones that are much more either fatal, or have a much higher morbidity. There are new ones that we are learning about, including a new syndrome that makes people have a very severe anaphylactic reaction to dairy and animal byproducts.

Lauren Lavin:

That’s so interesting.

Kathryn Dalton:

It really is. So there’s still a lot that we don’t understand about this, what’s called alpha-gal syndrome, however, that is just one of the many new diseases that we are seeing that are transmitted by ticks. We’re also seeing diseases that we previously haven’t seen in areas of the US, including here, in Iowa.

Lauren Lavin:

And I’m also going to take a pause, because I feel like this could maybe stir up a lot of fear in people. So a practical pause, if people are worried about something like ticks, how are you preventing the exposure on a daily basis, in both maybe your pets and you?

Kathryn Dalton:

Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think there’s a lot of different things that individuals can do. Obviously, they talk a lot about tick checks and doing body checks, searching for any ticks on yourself, particularly when you’re doing these risky behaviors. People think a lot about hiking, and things like that, but honestly, even just spending time in your yard, gardening, taking your pets for a walk, that can all possibly be a source of exposure to ticks. However, doing tick checks isn’t enough, because we know that it’s actually these tiny little, what’s known as nymph ticks. You can kind of think of them as teenage ticks, and they are the ones that are more implicated in the disease transmission, because ticks actually have to be attached for 24, even 48 hours, in order to spread Lyme and a few other different diseases. And so if you’re removing them as soon as it happens, you are at much, much less risk of acquiring the disease.

Lauren Lavin:

That’s good to know.

Kathryn Dalton:

However, these nymph ticks are really small. They’re like the size of a poppy seed.

Lauren Lavin:

Oh, my gosh.

Kathryn Dalton:

Right, so you can imagine how hard that is to detect and remove even. And so that’s why we really worry about these nymph ticks, and while doing tick checks, visual isn’t enough. So you can also do things like honestly, even taking a lint roller on yourself. If they’re not attached, that will pick it up. But it’s also doing things like wearing socks and long-sleeve shirts and pants, particularly when you’re doing these risky behaviors, and then also trying to avoid areas where ticks frequent. They like to be hanging out in taller grass areas, and so avoiding those borders. But it’s also important that if you do detect a tick on you, to report it to your doctor. They may just kind of monitor it, and say for you to keep an eye on it, but depending on your situation, they may recommend you going on antibiotics, which can lessen the severity of the disease.

Lauren Lavin:

So if you find a tick on you, do you automatically assume that you’re going to get some type of disease or is it like a 50-50?

Kathryn Dalton:

I would say closer to the 50-50. We know ticks have a prevalence of anywhere from 60 to 70% of them carry some form of pathogens that can impact human health. And so yes, I’d say it’s maybe a little over 50% chance if you do have a tick bite, that you will be exposed to some disease. Not saying that you will actually go on to develop clinical signs, but it is a certain and very known risk factor.

Lauren Lavin:

This is all good to know. So what makes ticks such a pressing concern, especially with the tie-in to broader climate and environmental shifts that we’re seeing?

Kathryn Dalton:

Absolutely. What is challenging about understanding the etiology of these ticks, and the implications to these tick-borne diseases, is that we know our climate is changing, and that is impacting the ecosystem overall, and the tick habitats, which is then changing their distribution and the prevalence that we are exposed to them. However, it’s been really challenging to isolate a single environmental factor, such as we are getting warmer seasons, or changing in land use patterns, because climate change is altering so many facets of our ecosystem, and it’s changing every single year. So identifying these environmental risk factors has been kind of a moving target, because it’s changing every single year.

Lauren Lavin:

Yeah, we’re changing too many variables.

Kathryn Dalton:

Exactly right, yes.

Lauren Lavin:

And of course, ticks aren’t the whole story. So as weather patterns, climate change continues to shift, what other insects, or vectors, should we be paying closer attention to?

Kathryn Dalton:

Yes. Well, we know that ticks and mosquitoes aren’t the only vectors of these type of pathogens. We know that fleas and other insects can also transmit a variety of diseases, and again, changing to our ecosystem will also impact their habitat and distribution. But you also have to think of the full transmission cycle of these diseases, and focusing also on the different animal host species, and these are what’s known as intermediate species. So, thinking about things like mice and other rodents, deer, also, I talked about our pets, all of those can be on the pathway of the pathogen being in the tick, to then ourselves and other community members acquiring it. And so there are other parts along that path, such as other animals, that can all be altered because of changes to our climate. But on the other side, it also offers us other opportunities to intervene on this disease transmission, and hopefully minimize our exposure.

Lauren Lavin:

And when we talk about… I mean since we are in the Midwest, the mosquitoes can be out of control. Do you worry about mosquito bites at large, or if you’re spraying with Off spray and you get a few, it’s like, “Okay?”

Kathryn Dalton:

Sure. That is a great question. And here, in the Midwest, we do not have locally acquired a lot of mosquito-borne diseases, things that we worry about, like malaria and dengue. We do see travel-associated cases of it though. However, we do have that species of mosquito, Aedes aegypti mosquito, that is known to carry these severe human pathogens, and so it is absolutely possible in the future, for us to get these locally-acquired cases of mosquito-borne disease. Plus, as we are seeing with ticks, who knows if mosquitoes will start to transmit other new viruses and bacteria, or other weird human health syndromes, that can impact community and public health overall.

Lauren Lavin:

Which kind of leads me into new developments. So what are some of the most important updates or findings in vector-borne disease research that are addressing some of these problems that we’ve talked about, and you think the public should know about?

Kathryn Dalton:

Yeah, there’s certainly been a lot of push because of the increased cases of vector-borne diseases, as well as just the increase of vectors overall here, in the US. And what’s really promising is that a lot of these prevention methods are approaching it from a variety of different angles. And so there’s obviously a lot on the individual side of things that we can do, most of that depends on behavior changes. But going along with that, there’s been a lot of effort to understand people’s perception, their awareness, and how they perceive these prevention behaviors that we recommend, because we know that’s important in their actual adoption and routine utilization. So I think that’s been a really great aspect of recommendations to prevention.

But at the larger community level, there’s also been a push to understand the distribution of these ticks and other vectors, and how they are changing. There’s some really, really great citizen science projects, where people will send in their ticks to these different labs and research institutions, and they use that as a proxy, to look at the distribution of ticks and how they are changing, and also whether they are carrying different pathogens, and which ones.

Lauren Lavin:

That’s really interesting.

Kathryn Dalton:

Yes.

Lauren Lavin:

Sending your ticks in the mail.

Kathryn Dalton:

It really is. I definitely wouldn’t be the mailman in charge of that.

Lauren Lavin:

So with so many moving parts, prevention seems like it’s probably really important.

Kathryn Dalton:

Absolutely, it is. Minimizing our exposure to these vectors is probably the number one way that we can prevent these diseases.

Lauren Lavin:

So then at the individual, community, or even the policy level, what strategies do you think make the biggest difference in reducing risk?

Kathryn Dalton:

That is a great question, and I would be hesitant to say that just one single initiative is going to drastically reduce the rates. I really think it’s going to take a variety of different approaches in order to benefit human health overall. So, it’s targeting the tick vectors themselves. It’s targeting these reservoir hosts, and these intermediate hosts, so different wildlife species, that can increase the tick population, as well as carry these pathogens themselves. And then it’s obviously also incorporating community perspectives, and understanding how that impacts their behaviors that can help prevent them from being exposed to ticks. And then at the large policy level, it’s really improving and maintaining our surveillance systems, so that we know that any type of intervention that we recommend, we can actually track the data and show whether it is effective at minimizing, either the tick vectors or the disease distribution, and prevalence overall.

Lauren Lavin:

So it’s really multifaceted.

Kathryn Dalton:

It absolutely is.

Lauren Lavin:

But even conversations like this, I’m guessing there are many people who listen to this who had not really thought about ticks at any length.

Kathryn Dalton:

Sure, absolutely.

Lauren Lavin:

So I think even conversations like this are great for getting word out to the public.

Kathryn Dalton:

Exactly. That is my goal. And I think a big important part of… Because we know along the pathway, that they first have to be aware of the risk, understand ways that they can mitigate or minimize their own risk, and that is the important path, in terms of how we get people to really routinely use these preventative measures.

Lauren Lavin:

So as we look ahead to your own work, what kinds of research questions or projects are you most excited about? They don’t even have to be tick-related, this can be broadly.

Kathryn Dalton:

Oh, sure. Oh, goodness, that is a big question. Because I am definitely someone that goes along with this One Health ethos, so likes to have my hand involved in a lot of different, what I think are exciting projects. But I will focus specifically on tick-related issues. One thing I’m really passionate about is occupational health, and how we know that outdoor workers are at a much higher risk of being exposed to these ticks, and consequently, have a higher prevalence of these tick-borne diseases. Which makes sense, they are outside more as part of their normal job functions. And so one group that I am really passionate about preserving their health, is agriculture workers.

My history as a veterinarian, I worked with agriculture workers, and so preserving and maintaining and improving the health of my previous colleagues is something that I am very passionate about. And we know that farmers, even more than other outdoor workers, are shown to have higher rates of these tick-borne diseases and coming into contact with ticks, and so I’m really excited to chat with farmers more, and understand their perceptions on these diseases, and what they are doing for prevention-wise, both for themselves, but also for food animal production, what they are doing for these food animals as well too. And kind of using a community-based participatory research approach to understand ways that collaboratively, we can minimize their risk to these growing tick-borne diseases. So that project’s going to be starting really soon, and I’m very excited to dive into it. I think there’s a lot of opportunities there.

Lauren Lavin:

How long do you think it’ll take?

Kathryn Dalton:

Oh, I think this is going to be a multi-step project that’s going to have a lot of different facets to it. Right now, we are just at the baby step one. My ultimate goal is to collaboratively develop an intervention program that can be used for farmers across the Midwest.

Lauren Lavin:

That’s incredible.

Kathryn Dalton:

That’s the goal.

Lauren Lavin:

Do you already have some insight on what they do for tick prevention, if they do any?

Kathryn Dalton:

Honestly, no. There has been very few research. There has been a decent amount of studies, actually out in Europe, looking at agriculture workers, and then a handful of smaller projects, a lot of which have been based in the Northeast, here in the US, but there really hasn’t been a widespread program to capture the perspective of farmers, and really work with them to develop these different intervention programs, that is not only efficacious, but also feasible for them to do during their daily job functions.

Lauren Lavin:

Right. Yeah, they’re busy people.

Kathryn Dalton:

Exactly right. And we don’t want to do anything to hinder their productivity, but at the same time, we want to keep them as safe as possible.

Lauren Lavin:

Absolutely. So it sounds like that’s really needed research, so I’ll look forward to that.

Kathryn Dalton:

I believe so.

Lauren Lavin:

As we wrap this up, if listeners remember just one thing about how climate and vector-borne diseases intersect with public health, what would you want it to be?

Kathryn Dalton:

Oh, goodness, that is a big question to end on. And I think the thing to know is that there is not just one disease syndrome, or even group of diseases, that are going to be impacted by changes to our environment. And so it’s really going to be utilizing a multidisciplinary approach, I like the One Health approach, in order to tackle what we call these wicked public health projects. And for those students that are listening, I don’t think that’s something that you should wait to until you are a practitioner to build those skills, in terms of how you work with individuals from other disciplines, with other perspectives and approaches. Take the opportunity now, to work with students from other colleges, whether that be engineering and other science fields, other health departments and sectors, as well as sociology and other humanities groups, and really building these networks and understanding different approaches now, while your students, I think, will really help in the future, in order to tackle these complex One Health issues.

Lauren Lavin:

I love that. What a great way to end.

Kathryn Dalton:

Yes. Yeah. Don’t be afraid of, what we called it, non-traditional uncommon path.

Lauren Lavin:

Absolutely. And I think the longer you’re in public health, you realize how multidisciplinary it is.

Kathryn Dalton:

Absolutely.

Lauren Lavin:

So I think it’d be impossible to be successful in this area if you weren’t going to be collaborative with other people, because I think you’d miss out.

Kathryn Dalton:

I completely agree. Yes, yeah. I think that is the benefit and joy of public health, and that it is a team science-based discipline.

Lauren Lavin:

With so many different experts weighing in, which is-

Kathryn Dalton:

Exactly. And it’s how you incorporate those in a harmonious and beneficial way, that I think is really what’s going to advance the field and protect overall human health.

Lauren Lavin:

Well, on that note, thank you so much, Dr. Dalton, for being on the podcast today. I learned a lot, and I’m sure our listeners did too.

Kathryn Dalton:

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. This has been fantastic.

Lauren Lavin:

That’s it for our episode this week. A big thank you to Dr. Kathryn Dalton for joining us and sharing her expertise on vector-borne diseases, climate change, and the importance of collaboration across disciplines. Today’s conversation reminded me that public health isn’t confined to labs or clinics, but it’s in our backyards, our pets, and our changing environment. From understanding how ticks and mosquitoes spread disease, to recognizing how prevention, awareness, and community action intersect, Dr. Dalton’s work shows us the power of One Health thinking in Action.

This episode was hosted and written by Lauren Lavin, and edited and produced by Lauren Lavin. You can learn more about the University of Iowa College of Public Health on Facebook. Our podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. If you enjoyed this episode and would like to help support our podcast, please share it with your colleagues, friends, or anyone interested in public health. Have a suggestion for our team? You can reach us at cph-gradambassador@Uiowa.edu. This episode is brought to you by the University of Iowa College of Public Health. Until next week, stay healthy, stay curious, and take care.