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THUNDER BAY – After catching a blacklegged tick while dragging a sheet of cloth on the ground – a first in the Thunder Bay area – the District Health Unit was able to catch four other insects by the same method.
This increases the chances that Public Health Ontario will define the district as a risk area for Lyme disease
Currently, the designation has only been made in parts of southern Ontario. and in the pockets of the Rainy River and Kenora Districts. 19659002] Blacklegged ticks can transmit the bacterium responsible for the debilitating disease
Health workers monitor them by active surveillance and pbadive surveillance
Active surveillance involves sliding a white sheet in areas where ticks are probably present. Three of the five people recently captured by a student worker from the health unit were found in the Belrose Road area. The others were captured on a trail near Mountain Road and on the boreal route west of Highway 590.
All were sent to the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg for a screening test. Lyme Disease
Ken Deacon, Thunder Coordinator The Bay District Health Unit vector vector control program indicates that if a blacklegged tick is also caught during active surveillance this fall, "we will change officially our risk status of a low-risk area with provincial recognition. "
In addition to the five ticks caught on white sheets, under pbadive surveillance, insects continue to be returned to the health unit by members of the public who found them on their territory.
In the last 11 years, 7% of blacklegged ticks tested for TBDHU by pbadive surveillance tested positive for bacteria that could cause Lyme disease. 19659002]
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