State health and agriculture leaders are urging people to take preventive measures to protect against tick-borne diseases.

Top officials in Vermont are renewing their plea to people across the state to remain vigilant about potential threats from ticks this summer.

“The percentage of ticks found carrying Lyme disease and other pathogens have risen in the last four years,” Gov. Phil Scott, R-Vermont, warned Tuesday at a press conference in Woodstock.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture regularly conducts tick surveys aimed at understanding the scope of the threat, collecting nearly 2,000 ticks this spring. Another round of surveying will be conducted in the fall, the agency said, with an eye toward understanding tick densities and where possible human interactions could happen.

While the state is still waiting for lab tests on some of this year’s samples, last year, 57% of the parasites collected were carriers of disease, said Vermont Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts.

Watch the full news piece here from NECN, featuring VYCC’s Woodstock Crew.