Tue 2 May 2023|12:00-13:00 ET
In response to changes in climate and habitat use, tick and host populations have been shifting their geographic ranges poleward to regions with more favourable environmental conditions. The spread of emerging tick-borne pathogens has steadily increased in Canada, as tick vectors and mammalian hosts have become more widely distributed. Recent detections of emerging tick-borne pathogens, Babesia odocoilei and Rickettsia rickettsii, have been found in previously undetected hotspots outside of their current range limits based on sentinel surveillance efforts in Central Canada. Consequently, disease risk may be mediated by regional processes that involve the abundance and diversity of small mammal assemblages.
Kirsten Crandall, Dr. Jeremy Kerr, and Dr. Virginie Millien, McGill University and the University of Ottawa