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There are many different species of tick in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI. The backlegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, is the primary vector for Borrelia spp., the Lyme disease bacteria in this region. Other species of tick can also carry and transmit Borrelia spp. and / or other bacteria, viruses, and protozoans.
Whether a given tick can infect a human or another animal with Borrelia spp. depends on whether the tick is infected and how long it feeds (also known as attachment or feeding time). Despite this, as all tick species can carry and transmit multiple pathogens, some with shorter transmission times, any tick bite should be recorded. Each species of tick looks a bit different but even within a species, the extent of engorgement (feeding), life stage, sex and other factors can make individual specimens look different. Good resources for identifying ticks include https://tickencounter.org/tick_identification and https://canlyme.com/lyme-basics/tick-id/ We are happy to identify any ticks submitted by mail (see "submit your tick") or high resolution images (many cell phones will take good close up pictures). The Mount Allison Tick Bank is a resource of ticks, tick DNA, protein, images and metadata that is available to other researchers and community groups. |
All content copyright, images and data by Dr. Vett K. Lloyd and Mount Allison University