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The data and information presented in this web site are presented in good faith and believed to be accurate. Any and all liability for the content or any omissions including any inaccuracies, errors, or misstatements in such data or information is expressly disclaimed. The web site is compiled for the sole purpose of informing community members of resources and information pertaining to Lyme Borreliosis Disease and its coinfections.
The Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, Directors and members are not liable for any direct or indirect damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of information available from this website.
Consult a qualified Lyme ( Borreliosis ) Disease literate doctor for medical advice if Lyme Disease is suspect.
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Contact: John D. Scott,
President, Lyme Disease Association of Ontario
519-843-3646 (9:00 - 11:30 a.m., 2:00 - 4:30 p.m.)
jnkscott@freespace.net
Muhammad G. Morshed, Ph.D.,
Head, Zoonotic and Emerging Pathogens, Laboratory Services,
British Columbia Centre for Disease Control,
604-660-6074
mmorshed@interchange.ubc.ca
Mystery behind the spread of Lyme in Canada Uncovered by Canadian Researchers
FERGUS, ON -A startling new study has unlocked the mystery surrounding growing infections of Lyme disease in parts of Canada where disease-carrying ticks are not native to the area, and offering doctors an explanation for the appearance of Lyme-related symptoms among their patients.
Lyme disease advocates want Canadian doctors to understand this now because October is the peak month for black-legged tick adults, a time when hunters and hikers are out in the bush and vulnerable to infection.
It turns out the guilty culprits are the billions of songbirds that migrate into and out of Canada every year.
These findings are critical, say Lyme Disease advocates, because they will finally offer an explanation to doctors who insist that their patients cannot have contracted Lyme disease because the ticks that carry it aren't native to the area.
The study points the finger squarely at birds wintering in southern climates and can carry tick species 5000 km during their northern flight to Canada every spring. The study, led by Prof. Muhammad G. Morshed, the head of Zoonotic and Emerging Pathogens at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, recently published its findings in the Journal of Parasitology.
Advocates for greater awareness of Lyme Disease in Canada say that until now, many patients were routinely told by their doctors that they do not have the disease because the ticks that carry the illness and its co-infections were not native to their area.
This has led to a rash of misdiagnoses for MS, Parkinsons, Lupus, fibromyalgia, Reynaud's, various forms of arthritis, and even Lou Gehrig's Disease, they add.
"This has frustrated many patients who eventually get in touch with our association," said John Scott, president and co-founder with his wife, Kit, of the Ontario Lyme Disease Association.
"Based on this belief, doctors refuse to test patients for Lyme or even consider it as a diagnosis because the disease vectors are not thought to be in the area, and nobody is telling the doctors any differently."
Scott notes that patients end up travelling to the United States for diagnosis, or to major urban areas like Toronto and Vancouver to find the few Canadian doctors with any experience treating and diagnosing the disease which can attack any organ in the body and affect the central nervous system.
A recent spate of feature articles in daily newspapers in Halifax, Ottawa, Peterborough and in the Globe and Mail have highlighted the frustration Canadian Lyme patients experience in their efforts to get a diagnosis and decent treatment in Canada.
The link to songbirds is significant because studies show that billions of birds migrate into and out of Canada each year playing an important role in the dispersal of ticks infected with the Lyme disease spirochete.
Biology researchers know that ground-dwelling songbirds, which forage among leaf litter and low-lying vegetation, are particularly susceptible to tick attachment.
"In essence," said Scott, "the ticks hitch a ride and get carried to Canada, where they drop off, attach to people and make them sick."
Researchers studied 25 sites across Canada and collected nine different tick species from 32 species of birds. In eastern Canada blacklegged ticks, Ioxdes scapularis, or "deer ticks" were removed from spring migratory birds.
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