Aurora Marguccio, Lance E Jones, Brian Wilm, Arif Ciloglu, Valeria Trivellone, Millon Blackshear, Tomas Rodriguez, April Holmes, Samantha Kerr, Chang-Hyun Kim, Chris M Stone
Powassan virus is a tickborne flavivirus that can cause severe encephalitis in humans. After the first known human case in Illinois, USA, we detected Powassan virus in adult Ixodes scapularis ticks collected from 2 sites in northern Illinois during 2025. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the virus as Powassan virus lineage II.