Tick-borne bacteria increasingly widespread in Canada, study finds
Tick-borne bacteria increasingly widespread in Canada, study finds
Researchers from Quebec and Ontario are calling for better testing to track the spread of tick-borne germs as disease-causing bacteria gain new ground in Canada.
Ticks are blood-sucking arachnids that can carry pathogens – bacteria, viruses and parasites – like those that cause Lyme disease. Now, McGill University PhD candidate Kirsten Crandall says pathogens that are local to other regions are beginning to show up across central Canada.
“While the bacteria that causes Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne pathogen in Canada, other tick-borne pathogens are moving in,” she said in a media release published on Nov. 17.
In a study published in the medical journal Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases on Nov. 9, Crandall and her co-authors from McGill and the University of Ottawa warned that two pathogens, Babesia odocoilei and Rickettsia rickettsii, had been detected in Canada outside of their historic geographic range.
Babesia odocoilei causes a malaria-like parasitic disease called babesiosis. Babesiosis can be asymptomatic or it can cause flu-like symptoms, such as fever, chills, sweats, headache, body aches, loss of appetite, nausea or fatigue.
Rickettsia rickettsii causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and is normally found in the United States, Western Canada, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Bolivia.
Both bacteria can infect animals and humans, and both were found in ticks and small mammals in Quebec. According to the study, climate change, habitat fragmentation and changes in the abundance of tick populations and their hosts are all driving the spread of emerging tick-borne pathogens like these across Canada.
“The presence of these pathogens changes the risk of disease for Canadians and animals in some densely populated areas of Canada,” Crandall said.
Crandall and her team made the detections using methods that went beyond those normally used in tick monitoring studies. By testing ticks at all life cycle stages, they discovered that female ticks can actually pass pathogens to their larval young. They also tested for pathogens not already listed as nationally notifiable diseases in Canada.
She said the findings demonstrate the need for better testing and tracking to detect the spread and potential risk of tick-borne pathogens to humans and animals throughout the country.
“Only two tick-borne pathogens are listed as nationally notifiable diseases in Canada: Lyme disease and tularemia," she said. "However, we are seeing increased cases of diseases like anaplasmosis and babesiosis in humans in Canada.”
Jeremy Kerr, a professor and research chair at the University of Ottawa's department of biology, said the study highlights the importance of funding more research into tick-borne diseases that haven't historically been common in Canada.
“If we don’t know that pathogens are present, we can’t equip Canadians with the information they need to protect themselves," he said in a statement released on Nov. 17. "COVID has diverted public health resources away from challenges like this one, and we need to remember that these tick-borne diseases are on the move too."
Correction
This story has been updated to reflect that Rickettsia rickettsii does not cause anaplasmosis.
Sign up to receive the most important updates in your inbox two times a week
This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, orange, emerging from the surface of cells, green, cultured in the lab. (NIAID-RML via AP)
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
After raising interest rates eight consecutive times, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem told an audience in Quebec City on Tuesday that inflation is showing signs of 'turning the corner' and that the coming year 'will be different.'
Residents digging through a collapsed building in a northwest Syrian town discovered a crying infant whose mother appears to have given birth to her while buried underneath the rubble from this week's devastating earthquake, relatives and a doctor said Tuesday.
Balloons and drones were among 768 reported UFO sightings in Canada last year, according to Winnipeg-based researcher Chris Rutkowski, who also found that eight per cent of all cases remained unexplained.
An Ontario man is being accused of changing his name, profession and life story multiple times to potentially more than 100 women online before leaving some out thousands of dollars.
Canadians now believe they need $1.7 million in savings in order to retire, a 20 per cent increase from 2020, according to a new BMO survey. The eye-watering figure is the largest sum since BMO first started surveying Canadians about their retirement expectations 13 years ago.
Three men who disappeared after planning to rap at a Detroit party were killed by multiple gunshots, police said Tuesday, five days after their bodies were found in a vacant, rat-infested building.
A report from British Columbia's coroner says a prominent anti-vaccine and COVID critic died in 2021 of a drug overdose, although he also tested positive for the illness post-mortem.
An Ontario man is being accused of changing his name, profession and life story multiple times to potentially more than 100 women online before leaving some out thousands of dollars.
The British Columbia government has introduced legislation to make Sept. 30 a paid statutory holiday marking the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
Balloons and drones were among 768 reported UFO sightings in Canada last year, according to Winnipeg-based researcher Chris Rutkowski, who also found that eight per cent of all cases remained unexplained.
Canadians now believe they need $1.7 million in savings in order to retire, a 20 per cent increase from 2020, according to a new BMO survey. The eye-watering figure is the largest sum since BMO first started surveying Canadians about their retirement expectations 13 years ago.
The Tsuut'ina Police Service, which serves a community west of Calgary, says it has spoken with more alleged victims of former Dances With Wolves actor Nathan Chasing Horse and additional charges will be laid against him in the coming days.
Even before Monday's devastating earthquake, getting aid to all parts of war-battered Syria was fraught with daunting political and logistical challenges.
Jurors at Alex Murdaugh's double murder trial in South Carolina will get to hear evidence about what crime scene technicians discovered when they tested a rain jacket found three months after his wife and son were killed, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Using underwater drones, warships and inflatable vessels, the Navy is carrying out an extensive operation to gather all of the pieces of the massive Chinese spy balloon a U.S. fighter jet shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday.
It's unclear when evacuated residents might be able to return home to the area where officials released and burned toxic chemicals from the wreckage of a derailed train, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday.
Crowds gathered at wreckage sites throughout Turkiye, vapor showing the cold air as people breathed in and out in anticipation of reaching more survivors. Even those who had emerged or escaped collapse in Monday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake and its forceful aftershocks now had to sleep in cars, outside or in government shelters.
A Utah man who fatally shot his wife, her mother and their five kids before turning the gun on himself had done online searches about how loud different guns sound and whether neighbors could hear gunshots five days before the killings, new court records posted online show.
The federal government is pledging to increase health funding to Canada's provinces and territories by $196.1 billion over the next 10 years, in a long-awaited deal aimed at addressing Canada's crumbling health-care systems with $46.2 billion in new funding.
The federal commission looking into the Liberal government's decision to use the Emergencies Act is being granted an extension to deliver its report to the cabinet and the public at the same time this month.
A U.S. survey found that people who had a personal connection to someone who became ill or died of COVID-19 were more likely to have received at least one shot of the vaccine compared to those who didn’t have any loved ones who had been impacted by the disease.
Canadian researchers are drawing attention to the increasing prevalence of 'a pathological pursuit of muscularity' among Canadian boys and young men, with a new study that found one in four were at risk of developing what's known as muscle dysmorphia.
Balloons and drones were among 768 reported UFO sightings in Canada last year, according to Winnipeg-based researcher Chris Rutkowski, who also found that eight per cent of all cases remained unexplained.
Microsoft is fusing ChatGPT-like technology into its search engine Bing, transforming an internet service that now trails far behind Google into a new way of communicating with artificial intelligence.
Zoom is cutting about 1,300 jobs, or approximately 15% of its workforce. CEO Eric Yuan said in a blog post Tuesday that the company ramped up staffing during the COVID-19 pandemic, when businesses became increasingly reliant on its service as people worked from home. Yuan said Zoom grew three times in size within 24 months to manage demand.
Three men who disappeared after planning to rap at a Detroit party were killed by multiple gunshots, police said Tuesday, five days after their bodies were found in a vacant, rat-infested building.
Tickets for the first concert of Beyonce's upcoming 'Renaissance' world tour sold out Tuesday, and concert management group Live Nation said a second concert in Stockholm was added because of the high demand.
Toronto native Samantha Bee is returning home to host the 2023 Canadian Screen Awards. Organizers for the ceremony celebrating the best in Canadian film and television said Bee will helm the pre-recorded broadcast to cap off Canadian Screen Week, during which there will be numerous in-person events for the first time in four years.
The number of insolvencies filed by Canadian businesses in 2022 was up 37.2 per cent compared with 2021. The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy says there were 3,402 business insolvencies last year, up from 2,480 in 2021.
A new poll finds one-third of Canadian households say their financial situation has worsened over the last year. According to a Leger poll commissioned by the Association for Canadian Studies, 34 per cent of Canadian households say they're financially worse off compared with a year ago.
Zoom is cutting about 1,300 jobs, or approximately 15% of its workforce. CEO Eric Yuan said in a blog post Tuesday that the company ramped up staffing during the COVID-19 pandemic, when businesses became increasingly reliant on its service as people worked from home. Yuan said Zoom grew three times in size within 24 months to manage demand.
She started throwing punches to get exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic, but now 17-year-old Talia Birch is gearing up to compete in the Canada Games as it opens up to female boxers for the first time
Ukrainian skier Ivan Kovbasnyuk, a two-time Olympian, can't train at home in the Carpathian Mountains because war in the country has damaged the power grid so severely that there's not enough energy to make the chairlifts operate.
Pro tennis player Jessica Pegula has revealed that her mother, Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres co-owner and president Kim Pegula, went into cardiac arrest in June and is still recovering while dealing with significant language and memory issues.
Automakers Renault and Nissan on Monday formalized their reboot of a relationship that had grown rocky, culminating in the spectacular fall of top executive Carlos Ghosn, who had led successful turnarounds at both companies before his arrest and daring escape.
New research suggests that cutting fossil fuel emissions by adopting electric vehicles can improve air quality and potentially reduce respiratory problems in communities. But these benefits may not apply to all neighbourhoods in the same way.
Former NFL player Jim Bob Morris is heading to the Super Bowl in Phoenix from Bloomington, Illinois, in a newly refurbished set of wheels. His ride has new paint, new seating and even a new bathroom.
