Pennsylvania consistently has more cases of Lyme disease in humans than any other state, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

For dogs, it's even more widespread. In fact people can go years without knowing they have it.Lyme disease can only be passed through a bite from an infected tick. And unfortunately, the tiny arachnids love the northeast because of the combination of climate and the wildlife that they feed on.As more people - and their animals - are enjoying the weather, education is key to preventing a tick bite, or detecting if you have contracted the disease."Pennsylvania has the highest number of reported cases in the country," Meghan Bird, an infectious disease specialist at East Stroudsburg's Northeast Wildlife DNA Laboratory, said. "Lyme can have some serious effects if it doesn't get treated in time."Hikers, dog owners or anybody who likes to spend time in the woods know that it's inevitable that ticks will find their way onto your clothing.But there's a lot that people can do to prevent infection from Lyme disease - the most important being just checking yourself after you leave a potential tick habitat."Checking. That's the number one thing," Bird said. "We usually tell people, after they come in, check themselves, check their dog. Comb them."Removing a tick requires caution and the reasons are somewhat scary. A tick bites so that it can drink its host's blood. If it's removed improperly, it could increase the risk of infection."You don't want to squeeze it, burn it, or anything like that. If it's taking blood from you, it'll actually regurgitate that blood back into you," Bird said.The proper way, Bird said, is to use tweezers to grasp the tick from its head - placing the tweezers directly on the skin - and then slowly removing it.Identifying a Lyme-carrying tick can help prevent a more severe case of the disease. Pennsylvania has virtually every type of tick found in the United States, but only one, the deer tick, carries the Lyme-causing bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. Unfortunately, the deer tick is also the species most commonly found in Pennsylvania.They can be identified by their relatively short legs and a red body, although females have a black "shield" on their back."They're probably the most populous one," Bird said. "Dog ticks are populous in this area, but they don't transmit Lyme," she said.A third type of tick which can occasionally be found here reportedly causes people to develop an allergy to meat. The Lone Star tick is more common in places such as Virginia and Maryland, but Bird said she has collected some here.Tests for Lyme aren't effective unless your body has begun fighting the disease. That's why Bird's lab offers tick testing. For a cost, a person bitten by a tick can have it tested immediately and get results even before symptoms occur."If the tick has the pathogen that causes Lyme, you can get treatment before you get sick," she said.For animals, the probability of a tick bite causing Lyme is actually less than it is for humans, according to Dr. Mike Nelson of Mahoning Valley Animal Hospital."We're kind of a hotbed (in Pennsylvania)," Nelson said. "At least half of the dogs we see here test positive for it."Detecting the symptoms in a dog is, obviously, different from humans. Nelson said that dogs will usually run a high fever and become lame on one or multiple legs.Veterinarians are not all in agreement when it comes to handling a dog infected with Lyme disease, Nelson said."I know a board certified vet - kind of the gurus in the profession - who will not treat a dog just because it's positive," he said. "I know others who say that they should treat every dog (showing symptoms)," he said.