12 October 2018 – Soft ticks are in the news! What are the odds that the week Dr. Toledo gave a lecture on ticks, hard- and soft-, would coincide with an outbreak of tick-borne African swine flu? Click here to link to an editorial by Dr. Stephen Higgs in Vector-borne and Zoonotic Diseases summarizing the recent expansions of arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) and how African swine fever that just expanded to China is a “game changer”. Higgs states: “if ASFV gets into the U.S., you will still certainly be impacted. Quarantines, movement restrictions, changing demands for different products may, for example, result in price increases for crops and cereals, such as soybeans and corn (Hayes et al. 2011), etc. I do not have the answers to address this threat, but I write this in the hope that somebody, somewhere, with the power and resources, will do something effective to sustainably and strategically support academic institutions, government agencies and industry with research, education and training in order that we can eradicate this threat.”