You are working at the ER one night in November, when five UIW students come in to your clinic with 3 of them suffering with low grade fever, lethargy, stomach cramps and diarrhea and two students presenting with a high fever, headaches, joint pain and chills.

The students started feeling these symptoms for approximately 48 hours after biking through a heavily forested area where a lot of tick infested deer were located. After the bike ride, they all ate dinner at Sully's Salad-A-Rama (who has had some air time on Behind the Kitchen Door with a record number of food demerits). All of the students (UIW and UTSA) ate at this establishment at the same time, same table.

How would you go about identifying the causative agents of their symptoms (Koch's postulates).? What sort of standard tests and molecular methods would you employ? What do you think is the causative agent (you don't need to know the specific organism) making them sick?