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Emily Chenery spent several days walking through forests and fields this fall, looking for something almost microscopic.
She found what she was looking for: hundreds or even thousands of tick larvae, each one the size of a grain of sand.
Submitted by Emily Chenery
"I was literally looking for a needle in a haystack," she says
The PhD student at the University of Toronto says this is the first time that larvae have been collected and studied in the territory.
Working with the Yukon Animal Health Unit, Chenery examines the stage of development after the parasite appears in an egg, but before attachment to an animal.
"Until now, we had only half a story, namely:" What happens when the ticks are on the host? "But not really," What's going on before then? How do they get in touch with these hosts in the first place? "
<p clbad = "canvas-atom canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Climate change could lead to an increase in pests"data-reactid =" 37 ">Climate change could lead to an increase in pests
Winter ticks do not transmit diseases that affect humans, but they can injure and even kill wildlife. According to Chenery, learning more about the complete lifecycle of blood suckers could help them control the tick population in the future, if necessary.
Submitted by Emily Chenery
A research paper published last month in the Canadian Journal of Zoology indicates that an increasing frequency of winter ticks in the northeastern United States is the presumed cause of decline in the regional population of moose .
A New York Times article quoted one of the newspaper's authors as saying that he had discovered 100,000 ticks on a single moose deceased, possibly dead from anemia.
Chenery says that although winter ticks are not a problem in the Yukon, it is important to study them in case their numbers get out of hand. A flawless stay
"Due to climate change, which increases the survival and development time of ticks, these small larvae can be expected to hatch faster, survive longer and have a longer period of time. to attack the host animals initially, here in the Yukon. "
Winter ticks feed on moose, elk and deer between fall and spring. Chenery found most of the larvae in the Takhini Valley area. She discovered that the larvae hatched from eggs around August. They clump together and climb into the vegetation until they can receive a host, usually an ungulate. When they find one, they immediately take a blood meal and stay on the same host until March or April, when adult females lay their eggs. The cycle starts again.
Submitted by Emily Chenery
Chenery did most of its collection in the field, as few skins were given to the Animal Health Unit for study.
"I've often heard that there were only a few moose found in the Yukon with winter ticks, but we only received data on six skins." since 2011, so it's very difficult for us to pin down a number on the number of animals affected. "
Before returning to Toronto for the winter, Chenery set up wildlife surveillance cameras in areas where she found most of the larva. She hopes these cameras will capture images of moose or other ungulates likely to lose their hair as a result of ticks.
Chenery will gather the cameras in May and continue his research.
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