Our online Pet Tick Tracker continues to receive lots of submissions, so here are some interesting maps showing some of the preliminary information compiled so far. The maps show where the ticks are being reported, but remember that they’re not necessarily reflective of the true overall picture, since it depends on who is reporting and who isn’t reporting. However, it’s still useful for looking for trends, e.g. where certain ticks are more common. We’re also looking for outliers, e.g. tick reports from areas where we don’t expect to find them. Outliers can potentially be followed up with active tick surveillance to see what’s there. Most submissions so far have been from Ontario, so I’ve only posted those maps.
Map 1: Dermacentor (American dog tick, green) and Ixodes scapularis (black legged tick, purple).
- Here, not surprisingly, we see Ixodes predominating in eastern Ontario, with Dermacentor predominating around Toronto and to the west.
Map 2: Hot spot analysis of Ixodes scapularis reports
- This is an analysis of the data that shows “hot spots” – places where Ixodes ticks are under- or over-represented
More to follow. Please keep the submissions coming! Visit PetTickTracker.