外流影片

鈥淪omething you don鈥檛 want to get is Lyme,鈥� says Dave Shutler, Professor Emeritus in Acadia鈥檚 Biology Department. Ticks that carry Lyme disease continue to expand their geographic range, including in Nova Scotia. 鈥淟yme can cause a diversity of symptoms, including muscle aches and arthritis,鈥� Shutler adds. 鈥淚t is also difficult to diagnose because the bacteria that are responsible elude detection.鈥�

Fortunately, there鈥檚 a convenient way to be notified whether the tick you just found might carry Lyme. You upload a photo of the tick to , a popular citizen science portal that tracks tick species and their prevalence across Canada.

Since 2020, a research hub at 外流影片 had been identifying ticks for eTick solely from Nova Scotia. This spring, Acadia became the only university that will review and identify uploaded tick photos from all four Atlantic provinces.

Across Nova Scotia last year, 1,804 images of ticks were uploaded to eTick and identified, about 30 percent of which were black-legged ticks that can carry Lyme. Shutler estimates that fewer than 500 additional ticks will be submitted this year from outside Nova Scotia.

View the photo gallery

 

 

NOT ONLY IDENTIFYING TICKS

Acadia鈥檚 eTick technicians, trained to identify tick species from images, identify ticks whose photographs have been uploaded by members of the public. Technicians then email responses that include the identity of the tick and whether medical concerns are associated with that species, such as black-legged ticks and Lyme disease. At the same time, the information is posted on eTick and goes to the lab at Bishop鈥檚 University, where eTick information from across Canada is collected, pooled, and used in research.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e notified that a tick you submit to eTick could carry Lyme, you should immediately contact your doctor to begin treatment with antibiotics,鈥� Shutler says.

Katie King (BSc Hons 鈥�23), a fourth-year biology student, has been an Acadia eTick technician since the end of her first year and is one of three eTick technicians at Acadia. They will soon be joined by a fourth. 鈥淏eing part of the eTick project is really exciting,鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檓 learning about citizen science and about parasitology and seeing new opportunities to follow.鈥�

King, who is returning to Acadia next fall to do her master鈥檚 degree, chose Acadia partly because of its location 鈥� she lives in the Annapolis Valley 鈥� but also because of Acadia鈥檚 large selection of ecology-based biology courses. She was in Shutler鈥檚 intro class. 鈥淎cadia鈥檚 small class sizes mean you get to know your professors, and they get to know you and can consider you for opportunities such as eTick,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he opportunity to get involved in eTick was because of how Acadia runs things.鈥�

EVOLUTION OF ETICK

eTick was started in 2014 by Jade Savage at Bishop鈥檚 University, and she has since enlisted participation from all provinces and territories. The Bishop鈥檚 eTick program is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada through the Infectious Diseases and Climate Change Fund.

In 2019, Savage approached Shutler and Kirk Hillier to field a team at Acadia to identify ticks. This year, Laura Ferguson and Nicoletta Faraone have joined Shutler and Hillier鈥檚 supervisory team just as Acadia is taking over all tick identifications for the Maritimes and Newfoundland and Labrador (see brief bios and research interests of eTick researchers below).

Anyone can visit and explore the rich database, which can be viewed on an interactive map or searched by different criteria including location, tick species, and time of year found. Visitors to the site can also enquire about uses researchers can make of the data.

鈥淚t would be extremely inefficient and prohibitively expensive to have government agencies monitor Lyme,鈥� Shutler says. 鈥淏ut by having citizens upload their tick images to eTick, a huge and valuable resource is generated. The reward for participant citizens is that trained technicians rapidly tell them if the tick they found could carry Lyme.鈥�

A free mobile application can be downloaded from the .

eTick Researchers

, Professor Emeritus, Biology Department. Shutler鈥檚 active research projects include bee diseases and reproductive ecology of tree swallows and of Leach鈥檚 storm-petrels.

, Professor, Biology Department, and Director of the Insect NeuroScience and Ecology CenTre at Acadia (). Hillier鈥檚 lab鈥檚 research is focused on olfactory processing and relationships between odours and an animal鈥檚 behaviour, particularly insect behaviour.

, Assistant Professor, Biology Department. Ferguson is an integrative biologist interested in how host-microbe interactions shape insect resilience. One focus is on mosquitoes and ticks, working towards understanding how their ability to resist and transmit disease will shift with climate change.

, Assistant Professor in Biochemistry, Chemistry Department. Faraone鈥檚 research interests include natural products, chemical ecology of ticks, bioactive molecules, bio-pesticides, and pest management.

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