Tick Time

Tick season is upon us and Professor Jade Savage, Biological Sciences at Bishop’s University was the second half guest today on Tetewatharen, the Partyline Talkshow on K1037, with host Peggy Mayo-Standup. Savage says that most of us did not grow-up knowing about ticks or identifying them, including the one associated with Lyme disease:

“The black-legged tick, the one species that is primarily associated with Lyme disease in eastern Canada, is a relatively newcomer. So, it has been here for a little bit over 20 years and it’s been moving fast and getting more abundant and so it’s difficult to develop new reflexes or new habits and so, in that sense it’s pretty normal that most people who did not care about ticks when they were young, probably don’t know much about them, today. So, they are definitely here now and in the Monteregie region, they are quite abundant and so at this time of the year, in the Spring, we do indeed get a peak of black-legged ticks.”

Savage says that not all ticks are bad:

“Not all tick species are a problem, even within the black-legged ticks, there’s a good proportion of the tick population that is not infected with the bacteria. So, it’s a point to sort of put things in perspective, just to make sure that people don’t get instantaneously anxious as soon as they see a tick.”

The only species that can transmit Lyme disease in Québec and northeastern North America is the Ixodes scapularis tick, also called the “deer tick” or “blacklegged tick”. Lyme disease is transmitted by the bite of a tick that carries Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria. This disease was first described in 1977 following an outbreak of arthritis in children living in the town of Lyme, Connecticut in the United States. Ticks that can transmit Lyme disease are now found in North America, Europe, Asia and North Africa. In Canada, ticks that can transmit Lyme disease are found in parts of southern Manitoba, Ontario, Québec and British Columbia and parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.