Lyme disease risk unknown
Winnipeg Free Press
Province seeks help from public to monitor deer tick population
The province is resurrecting a campaign to get doctors and
veterinarians to submit suspicious ticks plucked off dogs and patients this fall
so scientists can track whether Lyme disease-carrying bugs are breeding in more
Manitoba communities.
Dr. Robbin Lindsay, a research scientist with Winnipeg's National
Microbiology Lab, said the recent spike in the number of human cases of Lyme
disease in Manitoba has prompted health officials to ask veterinarians and
doctors to submit ticks to the University of Manitoba entomology department this
fall -- the time of year when adult deer ticks are most active.
University of Manitoba entomologist Prof. Terry Galloway studies deer ticks
and Lyme disease. So far this year people have sent him 10 deer tick specimens.
If multiple deer ticks are found on one person or pet or a cluster of deer
ticks are submitted from one community, Lindsay said research teams will comb
the area to see if the black-legged bugs are breeding and have established a new
population.
Scientists recently revealed that deer ticks are spreading from their
foothold in southeastern Manitoba to more communities and the risk of being
bitten by an infected tick is on the rise.
Last year, seven Manitobans tested positive for Lyme disease -- up from two
people in 2006. If left untreated, the disease can progress and cause serious
symptoms ranging from cardiac problems to paralysis.
"It's one of the cheap and easy ways to find out if you've got something
going on," Lindsay said. "It can find new populations (and) it's a pretty good
starting point to doing tick research in a bigger way."
Manitoba Health first petitioned doctors and veterinarians to be on the
lookout for the black-legged bugs in the late 1990s, when the province began
doing surveillance for deer ticks -- the species known to carry the bacteria
that causes Lyme disease.
Deer ticks, unlike wood ticks, can carry the bacteria that causes Lyme
disease.
The program was halted several years later, partially because scientists had
trouble keeping up with hundreds of submissions of wood ticks that were coming
from the public.
Lindsay said it's important to reinvigorate the campaign to get a more stable
number of tick submissions and a clearer picture of Lyme disease in the
province. In recent years, Lindsay said, the number of deer tick submissions has
fluctuated from year to year, making it difficult to determine the risk of
infection.
The U of M will send submitted deer ticks to Lindsay's lab, which will log
information about where the tick came from and determine whether it's infected
and relay the information to public health officials.
Winnipeg's National Microbiology Lab has studied deer ticks found in more
than 90 different communities in Manitoba -- including as far north as Flin Flon
-- and about 10 per cent are infected with the bacteria that causes Lyme
disease.
Most of the deer ticks are from Winnipeg and are submitted by veterinarians
to U of M Prof. Terry Galloway, an entomologist who spends the bulk of his time
studying mites, fleas and other insects.
Galloway said veterinarians typically have the best eye for spotting deer
ticks, and held a tiny glass vial up to the light to inspect a black tick pulled
off a child's earlobe in Miami, in southwestern Manitoba.
Galloway suspects his latest specimen is a juvenile deer tick, and will
forward it to Lindsay to confirm.
October is peak season for deer ticks, and Galloway said people should be
vigilant to continue to check themselves and their pets since 99 per cent of
ticks found in autumn are deer ticks. Wood ticks, or American dog ticks, are
non-infectious and are most active in spring.
jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca
TOP
| 
