U of S partners with Ministry of Health for online tick reporting

The Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan is switching to a new method of tick surveillance—eTick.

“The way the program works is if you go out and you or your dog has been bit by a tick or you find a tick on your person you can take a photo of it with your smartphone and then submit it,” assistant professor Dr Maarten Voordouw said.

Researchers will use the photo and information to identify the species of tick and provide relevant public health information.

“All these submissions will allow us to make a map and we’ll be able to see where people are being bit by ticks,” Voordouw explained.

He expects the mapping will focus on fairly populated areas like cities, but there are still benefits.

“It can still provide you interesting information about what ticks around are doing when and where,” Voordouw said. “We’re very interested in also monitoring what tick species are out, that’s important for us tick biologists.”

Typically in Saskatchewan, the most common tick species is the American dog tick, which Voordouw said does not transmit Lyme disease.

Black-legged ticks are associated with Lyme disease and are often found in eastern Canada and Manitoba.

“That’s one of the advantages of this program, most of us wouldn’t know how to tell one tick species from another,” he said. “So if you’ve been bitten by a tick– you’re concerned about it, you’re concerned maybe you could be at risk of Lyme disease by submitting these photos we can tell you (the species).”

Before eTick people who found ticks could mail them to the University of Saskatchewan or the Roy Romanow Provincial Laboratory to be analyzed.

Researchers at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Que created the eTick system, according to the U of S.