In 2019 the Laboratory of Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, led by Dr. Melissa Nolan, partnered with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (Medical Entomology Lab) and Clemson University (Livestock and Poultry Health) to launch the state’s first tick surveillance program. This project was part of a CDC funded grant awarded to establish a collaborative center of key states affected by vector-borne diseases in the southeast. This program surveils state parks across South Carolina, to collect ticks looking for animals to attach. In addition, the lab receives ticks through their passive surveillance, arriving from animal shelters, humane societies, and the public across the state. More than 15,000 tick specimens have been collected and analyzed, bringing light to the pathogen presence and the species that reside in the state, that can help us understand the public health risk. Thanks to this initiative, the team identified the first established population of the invasive species “Asian long horned tick”, which is a big threat for us, as a single female tick can reproduce without a male, rapidly growing in numbers to the point of killing an animal through anemia due to an abundance of ticks feeding at the same time on one animal. Dr. Gual Gonzalez will present the results for the past 4 years of surveillance, and the future directions of this initiative.