The document discusses ticks and tick-borne diseases, providing information over several areas: 1. Ticks cause billions in economic losses annually through disease transmission, reduced productivity, and other impacts. 2. The ILRI Tick Unit maintains various tick colonies and infrastructure to conduct research on ticks and tick-borne diseases affecting livestock in Africa. 3. Current projects at the Tick Unit include vaccine research, studies of tick-host interactions, genetics, and developing models to understand tick-borne pathogens.