No deer ticks confirmed yet this summer

While tick season seems to be dragging on a little longer than usual this summer, there’s been few signs of their Lyme disease-causing cousins, the deer tick (or black-legged tick), in the Kenora-Rainy River catchment area.
Al Mathers, environmental health officer with the Northwestern Health Unit, said they’ve been on the lookout for black-legged ticks, and occurrences of Lyme disease, again this summer.
“We are investigating a Lyme disease case already this year, which is a bit of a surprise. It popped up in June, which kind of caught us off guard,” he noted.
Mathers said a woman in the Fort Frances area tested positive for Lyme disease, but fortunately she exhibited only ’flu-like symptoms and nothing more critical.
The health unit was made aware of the positive test result for Lyme disease, but was unable to get the actual tick that may have infected the woman to send away for testing.
“The individual doesn’t remember having a tick on them, so that kind of makes it hard, and she didn’t get the rash, either, but blood tests popped up for [Lyme disease],” noted Mathers.
“There were two cases last year, as well, of Lyme disease in the Rainy River area. One wasn’t from Rainy, but had spent time in the same locale as the other individual.
“They didn’t know each other, but they happened to be staying in the same area and both popped up with Lyme disease,” he added. “We get one or two a year, so it’s worth keeping an eye on.”
Similar to the longer-running West Nile testing programs, where ravens, crows, and mosquitoes are tested for that virus, the health unit currently is accepting suspicious ticks turned in by the public to determine the presence of deer ticks in its catchment area.
“We’ve been accepting specimens of ticks, moreso now those that are found on humans,” said Mathers. “People will phone and say, ‘I’ve found a tick on me’ or show up with a tick. We’ll ask where they got it.
“If it came off a pet, we look at it a little closer because we don’t want to send it away to the lab,” he explained. “We would prefer just the ones that have had human contact because the lab has been overloaded with ticks from other health units in southern Ontario.”
If it’s a wood tick, they’re fairly easy to identify, and not sent away for testing, said Mathers.
Deer ticks, on the other hand, are smaller than the common wood tick in all three of their life stages (larva, nymph, and adult). They’re three-seven mm in length, and dark brown to black in colour with no white marking on their backs.
Engorged females appear to have an orange/yellow-coloured abdomen.
Adults and nymphs have eight legs; larvae have six.
If there’s a chance it may be a black-legged tick (or deer tick), the health unit sends it to the public health lab in Thunder Bay, then on to Toronto, where it will be identified.
If it’s a black-legged tick, it’s then forwarded to the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg to be test for Borrelia burgdorferi—the corkscrew-shaped bacterium that causes Lyme disease.
“We’ve had a few that were suspicious because of the size and everything else,” noted Mathers. “So far, for us [in Kenora], they’ve turned out to be wood ticks, but I do know the guys in Fort have picked up a few black-legged ticks and submitted them for testing.
“And so far, the ones collected haven’t had the organism in it that would cause Lyme disease,” he added.
Mathers said if a specimen sent for testing comes back positive or negative, the health unit will contact the person who submitted it to let them know.
Only about 12 percent of the black-legged ticks actually carry the bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi.
< *c>What is Lyme disease?
When a young deer tick feeds on an infected animal, such as mice, squirrels, birds, and other small animals, it can pick up the Borrelia burgdorferi bacterium.
The bacterium then lives in the gut of the black-legged tick, and can be passed onto the tick’s next victim, including humans, although the chance of the victim actually getting Lyme disease is small.
According to the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care, deer ticks are most likely to transmit infection after being attached for at least two days of feeding (a complete blood meal can take several days).
The tick’s body slowly enlarges as it feeds, making it seen more easily.
“If anybody does feel they’ve been bitten by one . . . we encourage them to go to their family doctor and see what shows up on the blood test,” said Mathers, adding it is up to the physician to decide whether a blood test is warranted.
If you are infected, symptoms usually manifest in three-30 days.
The first sign of infection is a skin rash that looks like a red bull’s eye surrounding the spot where the tick bit you. The rash may be followed by symptoms like fatigue, chills, fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, and swollen lymph nodes.
The disease can progress to a second phase, which can last several months if left untreated. These symptoms include migraines, weakness, multiple skin rashes, painful or stiff joints, abnormal heartbeat, and extreme fatigue.
If treatment still is not sought, the infected person may suffer symptoms such as chronic arthritis and neurological symptoms.
Lyme disease usually can be treated with antibiotics in its early stages, but if left too long, more intensive treatment may be required.
< *c>How to avoid ticks
The Ministry of Health and Long-term Care offers the following advice to foil ticks of any variety:
•Wear light-coloured clothing. It makes ticks easier to spot.
•Wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt.
•Wear closed footwear and socks, never sandals. Tuck your pants into your socks.
•Use a tick repellent that has DEET. Apply it to your skin and outer clothing (avoid your eyes and mouth).
•Treat your pets and check them for ticks periodically.
•If in an area where you might get a tick bite, it’s important to search your body well for ticks each day.
If a tick does bite you and becomes imbedded in your skin, the best bet is using tweezers to remove it, taking care not to remove its mouth, which is key for identifying the species of tick.
If a tick cannot be removed by you, see a doctor to do so.