Nancy Taylor recently found a great resource regarding ticks called the Laboratory of Medical Zoology (LMZ). LMZ is an academic research lab at the University of Massachusetts with a focus on infectious diseases or more specific "zoonosis". Their website describes zoonosis as "diseases with transmission cycles that involve other animal species." One of the great things about this resource is that they test ticks for diseases. The standard test of deer ticks is $50.00 and includes testing for Lyme disease, Anaplasmosis and Babesiosis. In addition you can search their database and find what type of ticks and if any diseases have been found in your area. For instance, I searched for Ohio and the database shows the number of ticks tested and total positive as well as what the specific test results were for various cities. For instance, Mansfield, Ohio had a tick test positive for Lyme disease.
LMZ can be found at this link: http://www.tickdiseases.org/