Pennsylvania to conduct 5-year study of ticks and the illnesses they carry

Cases of Lyme disease are on the rise in Pennsylvania.

The Department of Environmental Protection is responding by launching a five-year surveillance program to prevent the disease from spreading.

The EPA is getting a $2.5 million grant to study what it is calling a public health issue.

Three types of ticks will be collected in each county in the spring and summer, so their DNA can be analyzed.

People get Lyme disease when they are bitten by an infected deer tick.

Doctors say it is treatable through antibiotics.