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­­Primary Detection of the Establishment of Blacklegged Ticks, Ixodes scapularis, in British Columbia, Canada

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Open Access
Article Type Research Article
Subject Biology Group
OCLC JBRES Record
John D Scott* and Catherine M Scott
Issue: Volume4-Issue5
Pages: 935-941
Received: 2023-05-23
Accepted: 2023-05-30
Published: 2023-05-31

Abstract

Ticks transport and transmit microbial pathogens that inflict malevolent diseases on domestic and wildlife animals, and humans. We reveal the first record of the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, in British Columbia (BC) and, concurrently, far western North America. We unveil the primary tick-host record of I. scapularis parasitizing a Mallard duck, Anas platyrhynchos. In our study, the most pronounced Ixodes species was I. scapularis (61%) followed by the western blacklegged tick, Ixodes pacificus (34%). The most frequently occurring mammalian host parasitized by I. scapularis was the eastern cottontail, Sylvilagus floridanus, a lagomorph of grassland habitats. Healthcare professionals must be aware that both I. pacificus, and I. scapularis bite humans in BC, and transmit at least six tick-borne human zoonotic pathogens that cause insidious diseases.

FullText HTML FullText PDF DOI: 10.37871/jbres1754 Crossmark

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Copyright

© 2023 Scott JD, et al. Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 Creative CommonsAttribution

How to cite this article

Scott JD, Scott CM. Primary Detection of the Establishment of Blacklegged Ticks, Ixodes scapularis, in British Columbia, Canada. J Biomed Res Environ Sci. 2023 May 31; 4(5): 935-941. doi: 10.37871/jbres1754, Article ID: JBRES1754, Available at: https://www.jelsciences.com/articles/jbres1754.pdf

Subject area(s)

Parasitology

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