As any hiker or dog walker can attest, checking for ticks is routine practice after being outdoors at this time of year.
But with tick populations on the rise across Ontario, Brock University researchers are looking to spread awareness about the dangers of these pesky bloodsuckers by monitoring local tick populations and testing them for pathogens that can spread diseases to humans and pets.
"Tick research is incredibly difficult because of how cryptic ticks can be," says Biological Sciences PhD student Nick Benton (MSc '24). "Being able to study the abundance and also identify if these ticks are transmitting certain pathogens is important, not only for modelling the exposure risk for the greater community but also seeing trends into how these tick ranges are expanding and potential disease risks in an area."
Benton and a team of Brock researchers are currently collecting and testing ticks found in six areas across Niagara. They're targeting the Ixodes scapularis (commonly known as blacklegged ticks or deer ticks), which can potentially transmit Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease.
