Latest news with #VettLloyd
Globe and Mail
a day ago
- Health
- Globe and Mail
N.B. professor aims to broaden tick research after battling Lyme disease
When Vett Lloyd was bitten by a tick in 2011, it marked the beginning of a painful, years-long battle with Lyme disease. It also abruptly altered the trajectory of her career. At the time, Dr. Lloyd's research at New Brunswick's Mount Allison University was focused on cancer biology but she wondered why people weren't paying more attention to ticks. So, she converted her cancer lab into a tick lab and reoriented her life's work around the tiny bloodsucker that nearly ruined her. It was a scientific pursuit with a surprisingly therapeutic perk. 'When testing ticks, the first step you do is grind them into oblivion,' she says. 'And I must admit, it took me about 10 years to get over the joy of doing that.' Nova Scotians watch their backs – and each other's – during another tick-infested summer Dr. Lloyd would still love to see ticks 'disappeared from the face of the Earth.' But 13 years studying the parasitic arachnids have forced a begrudging admiration as well, both for their fascinating biology and remarkable ability to spread. Ticks, which are cousins of spiders and scorpions, have been crawling the planet for about 99 million years, according to fossil evidence showing that they once fed on dinosaurs. But in countries such as Canada and the United States, their numbers have risen dramatically in recent decades and ticks are increasingly recognized as a growing threat to public health. In Canada, some 40-odd tick species have been documented, Dr. Lloyd says – but only a handful are adept at biting people or spreading human disease. One species that's expert at both is the Ixodes scapularis, also known as the blacklegged tick or deer tick. It was once ignored by the public-health establishment. That all changed after 1976, when authorities in Lyme, Conn., reported a cluster of children with unexplained arthritis – an illness later attributed to the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, which is primarily spread through tick bites. Today, blacklegged ticks are a known vector for seven human pathogens: five bacteria (including the Lyme bacterium), one parasite (that causes a malaria-like illness) and a rare virus called Powassan, named for the Ontario town where it was discovered after the death of a five-year-old. Just three decades ago, there was only one spot in Canada where blacklegged ticks were known to be endemic: Long Point, Ont., along the shores of Lake Erie. But just across the U.S.-Canadian border, ticks were on the rise – as were the diseases they spread. Every year, millions of ticks are biting birds that fly into Canada. A 2008 study estimated that northward-migrating birds carry anywhere from 50 million to 175 million blacklegged ticks into Canada every year – all of which drop off their feathered hosts once they finish feeding. 'Canada's being bombed by ticks in the spring,' says Nick Ogden, first author of the 2008 migratory bird study and director of the modelling hub division with the Public Health Agency of Canada. Ask a Doctor: What should I know about ticks and Lyme disease? 'And when the temperatures rise to a suitable level for the ticks, they can start off a population.' In 2019, researchers conducted Canada's first real-time surveillance study of tick populations and found Ixodes ticks in every province except Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador. Of the 567 ticks collected, 25 per cent were infected with the Lyme bacterium. (In British Columbia, Lyme disease is less of a concern because another tick species – the Ixodes pacificus, a far less competent vector – is prevalent.) Climate change has been a major driver of their spread. Ticks were already capable of surviving Canadian winters under certain conditions, Dr. Ogden says – for example, if they find a cozy leaf layer, where the microclimate might keep temperatures closer to zero. 'And they've got a bit of antifreeze in their bodies, which protects them,' he adds. But the warming planet is resulting in more cumulative days with temperatures above zero – a key threshold for ticks to survive and thrive, according to Dr. Ogden's research. Given that female ticks can lay between 2,000 to 3,000 eggs in a single clutch, it doesn't take long for their numbers to explode. 'Nationally, it's really exponential what we're seeing,' says Manisha Kulkarni, the scientific director of the Canadian Lyme Disease Research Network and a professor at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. 'The abundance of ticks is really increasing ... which is leading to that amplification of tick-borne pathogens and that potential for spillover.' The key to fighting ticks? Getting to know them better Every person who contracts Lyme will have unwittingly supplied one of the three blood meals that a blacklegged tick requires over its lifetime, which can span two to four years. Newly hatched from its egg, the six-legged tick larvae will die without its first blood meal. 'So, the mom usually lays her eggs close to a mouse burrow,' says clinical microbiologist Muhammad Morshed, program head for zoonotic disease and emerging pathogens at the BC Centre for Disease Control. 'They can easily hop onto mice or some other warm-blooded animal.' Rodents are natural reservoirs for the Lyme bacterium, however. So, this first feed often infects the tick, which continues harbouring the pathogen even after moulting into an eight-legged nymph. Blacklegged ticks don't seek out people. But their primary strategy for finding a blood meal is to climb a leaf or blade of grass, outstretch its front legs, and simply wait. If the first warm-blooded creature to come along is human, so be it. For the first 24 hours after biting, the tick is mostly just salivating and preparing for what scientists refer to, somewhat horrifyingly, as the 'big sip.' 'It's not really getting a lot of blood at first,' says Rebecca Eisen, a research biologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's division of vector-borne diseases. 'But it keeps on feeding, and then it just gets the big sip and engorges.' Ticks need strategies for staying attached. It helps to be a nymph, which is the size of a poppy seed and therefore tough to detect. Their mouthparts also have barbs and their salivary glands secrete an adhesive substance known as 'tick cement.' And generally, an infected tick needs to be embedded for more than 24 hours before disease transmission occurs, Dr. Eisen says. 'The blood getting into the midgut tells [the bacteria] 'Hey, we found a host,'' she explains. 'Then they'll start the migration into the salivary glands.' In its final life stage, the adult tick is trying to mate. A female needs a third and last blood meal to lay her eggs, so tick copulation mostly occurs on larger mammals – primarily white-tailed deer, an animal that's enjoyed a population resurgence in recent decades. As ever more millions of ticks embark upon this life cycle in Canada, Dr. Lloyd hopes her research will help people live more safely among their exploding numbers. Her lab is looking for better diagnostics, as well as answers to basic science questions – why, for example, do ticks seemingly have a greater hunger drive when they're infected? Pulverizing ticks may have provided early satisfaction for Dr. Lloyd, but her research has always been driven by a deep and personal understanding of the misery these bloodsuckers can cause. She still thinks of the man who once left her a voice mail, desperately seeking help for his chronic Lyme symptoms. When she phoned back, she learned that he had died by suicide. 'It's not just a nine-to-five job for me; I want to try and help,' Dr. Lloyd says. 'I've seen the devastation this causes.'
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Tick population booming in N.B. after successive mild winters, expert says
With the prospect of a warm summer ahead, Mount Allison University biologist Vett Lloyd warns New Brunswickers to protect themselves from ticks, who have been on the rise over the past couple of years. Lloyd has been studying ticks for more than 10 years and said the tick population has become unprecedentedly high this season. "We had two mild winters in a row and that means that instead of dying off during the winter, the ticks were able to sleep it out under the snow and under the soil," said Lloyd. "Anytime an adult female gets a good blood meal, she can produce 2,000 to 3,000 little baby ticks, so there are a lot of ticks now." Ticks are parasites that suck blood to create more ticks. They often feed on the blood of wild animals that carry diseases, such as Lyme disease, and bacteria that can be transmitted to humans and pets if they get bit. These diseases are called zoonotic illnesses, some of which can be fatal if left untreated. Lloyd said researchers have seen an increase in the number of ticks in the southern half of the province, along the coast. They're even starting to appear increasingly far north, carried by migratory birds and wild animals like coyotes, foxes and deer. These ticks are also carrying new diseases, such as anaplasmosis and babesiosis, which can be fatal to humans more rapidly than Lyme disease, Lloyd said. She said government doesn't currently keep track of the tick population, so researchers use community reports and targeted tick sweeps to determine how the parasite is spreading. To contribute to community reports, individuals can slowly drag a fleece blanket or an old towel over vegetation and grass in their backyard or a local park for a few minutes. If a small, black, multi-legged speck is observed, it's probably a tick. These reports can be submitted to a website created by researchers at Bishop's University and funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. The site also includes other resources, including a map of the country that indicates high-incidence tick areas in red. Besides using etick, Lloyd recommends using bug spray — preferably ones that say they also work on ticks. Lloyd said these sprays have probably been tested on ticks, making them more efficient to repel them than regular bug spray. She also recommends people cover their legs with long pants when outdoors. However, if this is not feasible due to summer heat, she stressed the importance of frequent tick checks during walks and after coming back from being outside. "Either in the middle of the hike, look at your own legs, look at your clothing, catch the ticks that are walking on you and get them off while they are still walking. They are not a risk," she said. "Once they stick their head into you and start sucking your blood, they are a risk, so get them off early." To make sure ticks are not latched on, Lloyd also advised people to take a shower after their walks or just take their clothes off and do a thorough tick check with the help of a mirror or someone else. In the young stages, ticks can be about the size of poppy seed, while adults can be around the size of a sesame seed, so Lloyd encourages people to look for "freckle-sized" objects. To protect pets from ticks, Lloyd said most anti-flea products will also have anti-tick medication. She recommends pet owners talk to their veterinarian and get medication prescribed to prevent the spread of diseases in their households. If you were bitten by a tick and didn't realize it for a couple of hours, Lloyd said to not panic. She said the first step to treat a tick bite is to remove it right away. "The nice thing about ticks is that they don't go fast, so it's not an emergency in the sense of gushing blood or someone can't breath," she said. Lloyd said there are various tick removal tools if people are squeamish about touching ticks, but they can easily remove them with tweezers or their hands if they have nothing available in their homes. She said the best thing to do to make sure the tick didn't give you a disease is to determine what type of tick it is. She recommended people submit the picture of the tick in etick, where researchers will identify it. People can also get their tick tested for diseases if they mail it to Geneticks, a private company in Canada that specializes in tick testing. There is a fee to get ticks tested by Geneticks, and according to Lloyd, besides Geneticks, there's only a few parts in the country where individuals can go to get ticks tested through the health-care system. Lloyd said many pharmacies can prescribe a single dose of antibiotics to people bitten by ticks, without cost, and even without a family doctor. In 2023, pharmacists became publicly funded to assess and prescribe for seven illnesses and conditions, including Lyme disease prevention after a high-risk tick bite. Lloyd said people only need to bring the tick in a bag, or take a picture of it, and show it to the pharmacist, who would then administer the antibiotic doxycycline depending on the severity of the case. "It works if you catch the tick when it just started to feed, so that's why it's really important to do a tick check the same day you've been exposed," said Lloyd. Lloyd said that if left unchecked, a tick can feed on an individual's blood for about a week, increasing their chances to infect its host with the diseases it's carrying. Based on this year's survey results regarding early tick bite treatment outcomes, Lloyd said pharmacy treatment has proven quite accessible. Anne Marie Picone, the executive director of the New Brunswick Pharmacist Association, agrees with Lloyd. She said the provision of the single-dose treatment has helped reduce the backlog of patients going to the urgent care clinics due to tick bites. "Anecdotal evidence from colleagues, from pharmacists that are members, are telling us that especially in certain areas, we are seeing increases in people coming in and asking for the service," she said. Picone explained that with the treatment being government funded, customers can come into most pharmacies in New Brunswick and get two paid-for tick assessments per year. She said pharmacists will mostly treat those who have been bitten within 72 hours because, depending on their symptoms and complexity of the case, they might need to be referred to a doctor. Additionally, Picone recommended people to reach out to their pharmacies first to make sure they have time to assess them. According to Lloyd's survey, 10 to 30 per cent of those who took the single-dose treatment can still get Lyme disease, however she believes having access to the treatment is still pivotal for the prevention of tick-caused diseases. "Three times fewer people developed Lyme disease if they got the early treatment than if they didn't," she said. Lloyd doesn't want to deter people from enjoying outdoor activities, but she hopes they will be more cautious about ticks and the diseases they carry, especially given the emergence of newer zoonotic tick-borne illnesses. "I always encourage people to go out, but then just be careful," she said. "Take just the same way you put sunscreen to not get a sunburn, put bug spray and do a tick check afterwards just to be safe."
CBC
23-06-2025
- Health
- CBC
N.S. has the most ticks in Canada — here's how to protect yourself
Head of the Lloyd Tick Lab shares prevention tips and what to do if a tick latches on The Nova Scotia government recently put out a reminder for people to protect themselves against tick-borne diseases, saying tick populations are growing in every part of the province — in both urban and rural areas. Vett Lloyd, a biology professor at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., and the head of the Lloyd Tick Lab, shared tips with CBC Radio's Information Morning Nova Scotia on how to deal with the insect. This interview has been shortened for length and clarity. LISTEN | Information Morning Halifax's interview with tick expert Vett Lloyd: Media Audio | Information Morning - NS : Tick-borne illnesses and tick removal techniques Caption: The provincial government is reminding people to protect themselves against tick-borne diseases. It said tick populations are growing in every part of the province, both urban and rural. Vett Lloyd, head of the Lloyd Tick Lab, talks about tick populations and preventative measures for tick season. Open Full Embed in New Tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages. Does Nova Scotia have more ticks than usual this year? Unfortunately, yes we do. It was a good winter for ticks. It was a mild, long, cool fall [and] a long, cool spring — a perfect season for ticks. Unfortunately, people are finding them and when we go out, we're finding huge numbers of ticks too. Congratulations to all of Nova Scotia. You win not only the regional contest for who has the most ticks, but nationally. New Brunswick is following behind. P.E.I. is getting a steadily increasing number of ticks. The thing is, once a female tick grabs a blood meal in the fall she will then be able to lay about 2,000 to 3,000 eggs. Their populations can increase really quickly. How is this information tracked? They're not being tracked in a national way, so they're tracked by proxy — so how many people submit pictures of ticks to the government tick-tracking site, eTick. We monitor them indirectly by the number of people who send them in to get tested. And obviously we're only encountering a small number of ticks and some people who are just used to them just kill them and get rid of them. Lyme disease is the main concern with ticks, but we've seen other pathogens that are showing up in recent years. How much of a concern is anaplasmosis? Veterinarians have been monitoring anaplasmosis for the past 10 years or so and they've seen it increase in frequency and also — along with the ticks — spreading northward. Anaplasmosis is a scary disease. If you get sick from it, you get very, very sick and you end up in the [emergency room]. If you're lucky, your ER doctor will realize quickly the fact that you've run out of blood cells. It does respond to treatment, as long as you get treatment. Is anaplasmosis potentially fatal? Yes. Can you get multiple kinds of illnesses from ticks? Can you get anaplasmosis and Lyme disease? Unfortunately, ticks are basically crawly bags of pathogens, so they will frequently have more than one pathogen and they can pass it on, which means that you just get extra sick. It's not just Lyme disease and anaplasmosis. We're also worried about babesiosis, which is a type of parasite. Those are the big ones coming up in this region. It's grim, but at the same time, people need to get outside and enjoy the outside. Quivering inside isn't going to help. There's also pediatric Lyme arthritis. Last summer, a memo was sent by the provincial medical officer of health to health-care practitioners to look out for it. What do you know about that? In an older adult, you would expect arthritis. But if you have an eight-year-old or a 10-year-old suddenly developing arthritis — particularly if it's just in one knee, but not both knees — that memo served to alert physicians that they should think about Lyme disease in that case. So with more Lyme disease, it's showing up in kids. Kids are small, they run around outside and they emit a lot of carbon dioxide, so they're super attractive to ticks. If there's more ticks, are we more likely to see tick-borne illnesses? Unfortunately, yes. But we can modify that to some extent by people just becoming more alert about prevention and doing tick checks. We know they're attracted to moist, warm areas, so people need to check armpits, groins and all of that. How do we properly remove ticks? If you're coming in from outside, do a tick check. That's a really good line of defence. Before you go outside, there are prevention things you can do. There are really good tools for dogs, various tick repellents and things that kill the ticks before the ticks feed long enough to give disease. There are also Lyme vaccines for dogs. For humans, the idea is that we have less hair so we're better at finding ticks [on ourselves]. From the ticks' perspective, we don't smell as good [as dogs]. The tick sprays, bug sprays that say they're good for ticks, are generally a good idea. If you're in a high-risk area, you can get clothing that has a repellent in it — commercial or you can make it yourself. When you come in, do a tick check. Strip down. Yes, check moist areas, but if your tick is hungry it could be anywhere. You're looking for freckles with legs. Freckles are not supposed to have legs. If they do, get it off you. There is a lot of mythology about how you remove ticks. Getting it off you is the main point. The bit that will be left embedded in your skin is the mouth part, which is not actually a risk to you. You don't want to squish the tick gut contents back into your bloodstream and you don't want to smear it on cuts.
CBC
23-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
Q&A: N.S. has the most ticks in Canada — here's how to protect yourself
Social Sharing The Nova Scotia government recently put out a reminder for people to protect themselves against tick-borne diseases, saying tick populations are growing in every part of the province — in both urban and rural areas. Vett Lloyd, a biology professor at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., and the head of the Lloyd Tick Lab, shared tips with CBC Radio's Information Morning Nova Scotia on how to deal with the insect. This interview has been shortened for length and clarity. Does Nova Scotia have more ticks than usual this year? Unfortunately, yes we do. It was a good winter for ticks. It was a mild, long, cool fall [and] a long, cool spring — a perfect season for ticks. Unfortunately, people are finding them and when we go out, we're finding huge numbers of ticks too. Congratulations to all of Nova Scotia. You win not only the regional contest for who has the most ticks, but nationally. New Brunswick is following behind. P.E.I. is getting a steadily increasing number of ticks. The thing is, once a female tick grabs a blood meal in the fall she will then be able to lay about 2,000 to 3,000 eggs. Their populations can increase really quickly. How is this information tracked? They're not being tracked in a national way, so they're tracked by proxy — so how many people submit pictures of ticks to the government tick-tracking site, eTick. We monitor them indirectly by the number of people who send them in to get tested. And obviously we're only encountering a small number of ticks and some people who are just used to them just kill them and get rid of them. Lyme disease is the main concern with ticks, but we've seen other pathogens that are showing up in recent years. How much of a concern is anaplasmosis? Veterinarians have been monitoring anaplasmosis for the past 10 years or so and they've seen it increase in frequency and also — along with the ticks — spreading northward. Anaplasmosis is a scary disease. If you get sick from it, you get very, very sick and you end up in the [emergency room]. If you're lucky, your ER doctor will realize quickly the fact that you've run out of blood cells. It does respond to treatment, as long as you get treatment. Is anaplasmosis potentially fatal? Yes. Can you get multiple kinds of illnesses from ticks? Can you get anaplasmosis and Lyme disease? Unfortunately, ticks are basically crawly bags of pathogens, so they will frequently have more than one pathogen and they can pass it on, which means that you just get extra sick. It's not just Lyme disease and anaplasmosis. We're also worried about babesiosis, which is a type of parasite. Those are the big ones coming up in this region. It's grim, but at the same time, people need to get outside and enjoy the outside. Quivering inside isn't going to help. There's also pediatric Lyme arthritis. Last summer, a memo was sent by the provincial medical officer of health to health-care practitioners to look out for it. What do you know about that? In an older adult, you would expect arthritis. But if you have an eight-year-old or a 10-year-old suddenly developing arthritis — particularly if it's just in one knee, but not both knees — that memo served to alert physicians that they should think about Lyme disease in that case. So with more Lyme disease, it's showing up in kids. Kids are small, they run around outside and they emit a lot of carbon dioxide, so they're super attractive to ticks. If there's more ticks, are we more likely to see tick-borne illnesses? Unfortunately, yes. But we can modify that to some extent by people just becoming more alert about prevention and doing tick checks. We know they're attracted to moist, warm areas, so people need to check armpits, groins and all of that. How do we properly remove ticks? If you're coming in from outside, do a tick check. That's a really good line of defence. Before you go outside, there are prevention things you can do. There are really good tools for dogs, various tick repellents and things that kill the ticks before the ticks feed long enough to give disease. There are also Lyme vaccines for dogs. For humans, the idea is that we have less hair so we're better at finding ticks [on ourselves]. From the ticks perspective, we don't smell as good [as dogs]. The tick sprays, bug sprays that say they're good for ticks, are generally a good idea. If you're in a high-risk area, you can get clothing that has a repellent in it — commercial or you can make it yourself. When you come in, do a tick check. Strip down. Yes, check moist areas, but if your tick is hungry it could be anywhere. You're looking for freckles with legs. Freckles are not supposed to have legs. If they do, get it off you. There is a lot of mythology about how you remove ticks. Getting it off you is the main point. The bit that will be left embedded in your skin is the mouth part, which is not actually a risk to you. You don't want to squish the tick gut contents back into your bloodstream and you don't want to smear it on cuts.
CTV News
14-05-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Tick numbers on the rise in the Maritimes following mild winter: expert
A warmer, snow-covered winter may be to blame for the spike in ticks being spotted across Maritime trails this spring, according to a Mount Allison University biology professor. 'It was a good winter for ticks, which is actually bad news for us,' said Vett Lloyd. 'We did get cold spells but when we had the cold spells, in norther N.S. areas, there was snow on the ground that insulated the ticks, and in the south the ticks were still insulated by being in the ground.' 'When the winters were harsher, we would lose more ticks over the winter so that kept the population down. An adult female can lay 2,000 to 3,000 eggs in the fall, and if those eggs don't die off, and if the baby ticks don't die, that makes for a lot of ticks in the spring.' Kerry Copeland and her dog Beau often use the trails near their home or hike in the woods. However, those walks can come with a price. 'Over the last couple years, you definitely see more ticks on the animals,' said Copeland. 'Every walk you come back and you find a tick on them, which can be really hard because their fur is dark. Sometimes it's not until later in the day that you see a little tick on them.' Lloyd said the abundance of ticks also raises the risk of disease. 'They move pathogens, disease causing microbe, from one wild animal to another wild animal,' explained Lloyd. 'We're not used to those diseases, and in addition to Lyme disease, we've now got Anaplasmosis and Babesiosis.' Anaplasmosis and Babesiosis is a bacterium that gets into the blood cells and kills it, according to Lloyd. 'Some people can't fight it off, so you crash really quickly. If you're lucky, you end up in the ER. It used to be rare, and it's getting a lot less rare,' Lloyd said. Pets, especially dogs, are particularly vulnerable, however, Lloyd said there are effective preventative measures available. 'So, there's a vaccine for Lyme disease for your dog. There are also really good tick and flea medications that will repel the ticks, so your dogs are reasonably well protected which is good because they're very much at risk. They're furry, they're close to the ground. If anyone's going to find a tick, it's your dog.' Currently, there is no vaccine for humans. 'The good thing about the vaccine is it would protect the dog somewhat, but it doesn't protect us and so I'm worried about his health and my health,' said Copeland. Lloyd said tick vaccines for humans are in development, but not on the market yet. In the meantime, Lloyd suggests carrying bug spray and wearing shoes and apparel to protect against ticks, and to look for ticks on your body when returning home.
