Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) is an established public health threat in eastern Arizona, impacting American Indian reservations (1, 2). RMSF requires an intensive "One Health" prevention strategy to stop future human RMSF cases and deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been working closely with Tribe X since 2004. In early 2012, a demonstration project was proposed in collaboration with tribe, state, and federal partners. The goal of this project was to conduct a series of properly timed prevention activities in a single neighborhood in a way that controlled ticks, provided a free and easy means of spaying and neutering dogs in the community, and ultimately would prevent human RMSF cases from occurring. The 2012 project was a pilot program to see if such activities would be helpful on a larger, reservation-wide scale. At the conclusion of the project, a survey was conducted to assess knowledge, attitudes and practices of the community regarding RMSF. Data showed that within the project neighborhood there was a substantial reduction in tick vectors on dogs, and residents showed increased knowledge about tick prevention practices on dogs and in the environment, as well as a strong desire for an improved comprehensive animal control program on the reservation. The findings from the prevention project indicated that scaling up a similar program reservation-wide might provide significant benefit against tickborne diseases like RMSF.
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