Three in 10 ticks carry bacteria that causes Lyme disease: report
Infected populations growing in number, University of Ottawa researchers find
Almost 30 per cent of black-legged ticks collected by University of Ottawa researchers across the city in 2017 were infected with the bacteria that causes Lyme disease — and the tiny ticks were both on the move and growing in numbers, according to a new report.
“Our study shows that tick populations are more widespread around Ottawa than previously thought,” medical entomologist Manisha Kulkarni said at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health. “Furthermore, ticks are starting to pop up in some areas of the city sooner than we were expecting.”
Kulkarni and colleague Roman Kryuchkov donned protective white suits to drag sheets of white flannel across the ground at 23 sites across Ottawa.
Blacklegged ticks were found in 70 per cent of the sites, according to the research published in the Canada Communicable Disease Report Friday.
One “important finding” was clusters along the Ottawa River.
Most of the ticks, who get infected by feeding on infected deer or mice, were on recreational trails, in conservation areas and forests and a provincial park, which had higher tick densities than municipal parks.
None were found in urban parks. Almost three in 10 of the 194 adults ticks and 26 nymphs tested positive for Borrelia burgdorferi which causes Lyme disease. Left untreated, Lyme disease can cause arthritis, neurological problems, paralysis and, rarely, even death.
Data collected from the 2018 season will be studied over the winter and published next summer by the uOttawa researchers.
They’re in the second year of a three-year study collecting baseline data of where the ticks are found, how likely they are to be infected with B. burgdorferi and other pathogens and studying factors make people more or less likely to be infected, such as proximity to natural areas, housing density and even socio-economic factors.