Island Veterinarians not worried about tick populations

Ryan Quigley

Journal Pioneer

Prince Edward Island veterinarians are not any more worried about tick populations than any other year, said Atlantic Veterinarian College associate professor Barbara Horney.

Recently Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have seen growth in the area and population of ticks.

Blacklegged ticks, most common for carrying Lyme disease have been the main concern and people have been urged to check their pets for ticks to remove them.

Ticks usual inhabit humid places such as grassy and wooded areas. They feed off the blood of living mammals, birds or reptiles and amphibians.

Horney said that as far as she knows, ticks haven’t sustained an ecosystem here or laid any eggs.

“We’ve never seen anything but an adult on P.E.I. that we know of,” said Horney. “The assumption is that it’s migrating birds that are dropping the adults off.”

Horney said one reason they believe they aren’t lying eggs on the Island is because we don’t have their preferred host, the white tailed deer.

“Now that doesn’t mean they can’t use another small mammal like a fox or a coyote or some other dog,” she said. “It might be some environment things too.”

Horney said there have been no comprehensive studies on tick populations done either.

“Nobody’s really looked extensively so I can’t say there aren’t any epidemic populations but at this point we haven’t identified any.”

She said if someone should find a tick, they will identify the tick in the diagnostics lab for free and then send it to Winnipeg for testing on Lyme disease.

“We know that 10 to 20 per cent, sometimes a little higher, of the ticks we get submitted from P.E.I. carry Borrelia which is the Lyme agent.”

Horney said even though there aren’t any large population issues here, people should stick be checking their pets and selves after being out in a wooded area.

“We know you never have to leave P.E.I. and a dog or a human could still pick up Lyme disease here,” she said. “Is it important to know whether the ticks are actually reproducing, lying eggs and having larval forms here? It might be but I think people need to be cautious anyway.”