Halifax, NS, Canada: We must understand risk of ticks & Lyme Disease
By Brenda Sterling-Goodwin March 24th, 2016, Chronicle Herald newspaper Halifax, NS, Canada
As migrating birds return this spring, they will be spreading millions of ticks across Canada.
Those ticks are here to stay and we must learn to work with the growing problem of their impact on pets and humans.
The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, in partnership with Merck Animal Health, has declared March as National Tick Awareness Month. And veterinarians are working to educate people on how to help protect their pets and themselves.
In 2005 and 2006, tests on 39,000 migrating birds in Eastern Canada found two per cent were carrying the blacklegged tick. Fifteen per cent of the ticks were positive for Lyme.