Infection Prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi in Ticks Collected from Songbirds in Far-Western Canada

Commentary: Lyme disease is spreading worldwide. Many Canadian patients have told me that their health authorities are struggling to understand the true prevalence of Lyme disease in Canada, with many health care providers denying the existence of the disease in their country. It is known that Lyme disease and associated tick-borne diseases can spread through wild birds dispersing ticks and acting as reservoirs for the disease. In this study just published in the International Journal of Acarology, 31% of the ticks from 21 species of birds in far Western Canada tested positive by PCR for Borrelia burgdorferi. In this study, two different ticks, Ixodes pacificus and Ixodes spinipalpis, both played a role in enzootic transmission cycle. Lyme disease is spreading through Canada through avian transmission, and “because songbirds widely disperse Lyme disease vector ticks, primary health providers and the general public must be vigilant that outdoors people may be bitten by B. burgdorferi-infected ticks throughout far-western Canada”.

Infection Prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi in Ticks Collected from Songbirds in Far-Western Canada, Scientific Research Publishing Inc.