Just read a book on the subject. I'll try to summarize while it's fresh in my mind, leaving out the medical tests to diagnose it since they could be complicated beyond my understanding.
First, the most important step is early diagnosis and treatment. Common signs of the disease are a red bullseye aound the bite, rashes, joint pain, and fever. There are blood tests to confirm the infection. The Northeast is the hotbed of infection with it occurring rarely in the Southern tier of states, and very rarely in desert areas. Possible victims in the areas of few problems showing those symptoms are looked ond with more doubt by doctors. Treatment involves antibiotics.
The rise in the number of cases of Lyme Disease follows almost exactly the increase in the deer population. There are 30 million deer in the US now, as opposed to 1/2 million in 1900. Nantucket island once had zero deer. In 1926 some deer were brought there. Now it has 2000 deer for the island's 50 square miles, and 411 cases of Lyme disease for the island's 10,000 full time residents and 40,000 summer residents.
Deer do not carry the disease. Ticks on the deer carry the disease. The ticks go through three stages of development, the larva, the nymph, and the adult. They have to have a meal of blood before going from one stage to another. The nymph stage is the one that transmitts the disease to humans. The adults live on the deer and eventually the female drops off and lays eggs, starting th ecycle over.
Ticks climb on plants and wait for an animal to pass by. I guess if you are doing field work and the tractor needs adjustment, it would be better to work on it in the field instead of driving it to shade at the edge of the field. Dogs can get Lyme disease but it doesn't affect them as badly.
There are different varieties of ticks but only one, commonly called the deer tick, carries Lyme disease. There are, of course other tick borne diseases.
There is no nnalert at the present time for Lyme disease. There was one but the drug company decided it was not cost effective to keep producing it. There is, however, a nnalert for dogs.
KEH