Neil Chilton is a bit of a tick magnet.
The parasitologist and assistant department head at the University of Saskatchewan’s biology department has spent eight years studying the hardy arachnids in Saskatchewan, including the past three years overseeing the Tick Surveillance Program.
He analyzes ticks that the public sends him from across Western Canada. Part of the program, in collaboration with Saskatchewan’s health ministry, is to determine if blacklegged ticks have established populations in the province.
This specific type of tick is a known carrier of Lyme disease and comes north from the U.S. on birds. Many don’t survive because they are dropped in areas that can’t support them.
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Robbin Lindsay, a research scientist with the Public Health Agency of Canada in Winnipeg, said pockets of blacklegged ticks have established themselves in Manitoba.
“What we’re seeing is an emergence of that species with potential for range expansion, so Lyme disease is going to be a much bigger issue than it has been,” he said.
It is not a problem in Alberta and Saskatchewan, he added, but the situation would require ongoing observation.
Chilton said he sees only an average of seven or eight blacklegged ticks a year.
It isn’t the only tick on Chilton’s radar.
He is interested in all ticks found in Western Canada, tracking their distribution and population growth and testing them to see if any carry harmful bacteria.
He said studying ticks is academically challenging but it also has practical applications.
Rocky Mountain wood ticks and American dog ticks, the most common breeds of tick in Western Canada, have been found in the United Sates to carry bacteria that can cause cattle disease.
Chilton usually relies on posters he puts up in veterinary offices to encourage people to send him samples, but he also asks veterinarians send in the ticks they collect.
He is particularly interested in ticks that come off cattle and horses because moose ticks, another species he wants to track, tend to be more commonly found on livestock.
Chilton encourages anyone who wants to contribute ticks to the cause to send them, dead or alive, to the University of Saskatchewan’s biology department at Biology Department, University of Saskatchewan, 112 Science Place, Saskatoon, Sask, S7N 5E2.
Samples should be clearly labelled to indicate where they were found. They can be sent in almost any container.
