Stefan Iwasawa - Birds, ticks, and climate change: a citizen science surveillance toolkit

Overview: Climate change is opening new habitat for organisms that once found Canada uninhabitable. Ticks, and their associated pathogens, are known to be expanding northward as the temperature increases and one potential way this is occurring is by catching a ride on migrating birds heading North for the summer. The objective of this project is to study the interactions between ticks, hosts, and pathogens to better understand the emergence processes of different strains of Borrelia burgdorferi (the causative agent of Lyme disease) or other pathogens that may circulate in two regions of Canada. The project will also provide information on which bird species are hosts to ticks and potentially identify invasive ticks species that are catching a ride North on their hosts. Materials and methods: To achieve this, ticks on migratory birds and in the environment around bird banding stations have been collected, identified, and tested for targeted pathogens. The sampling sites are two bird migration monitoring stations, one located in eastern Québec (Observatoire d'Oiseaux de Rimouski; OOR), and the other on Vancouver Island (Vancouver Island University (VIU) Bird Banding project; BUWE). In addition to standard identification and testing of ticks a portion of captured ticks will be submitted to eTick to increase the diversity of submissions to the platform and finally a citizen science toolkit that can be distributed to bird banders and banding stations across Canada has been developed to promote the submission of photos of ticks removed from birds to eTick. Preliminary results: Sampling at the eastern Quebec sites (located in the city of Rimouski in the Forillon National Park) conducted in May and June 2024 led to the collection of 86 Ixodes scapularis ticks (larvae and nymphs) and 76 Haemaphysalis leporispalustris ticks collected from migratory birds. Sampling at the VIU Bird Banding Station(located in the city of Nanaimo in Buttertubs Marsh) between April and July of 2024 led to the collection of 29 ticks (nymphs and larvae). Conclusions: This project will enhance the understanding of the complex interactions between migratory and resident birds, resident rodents, ticks, and associated tick-borne pathogen strains. It will also promote the continued submission of ticks off birds to eTick.

Mediasite Presenter

10/31/2024 8:35:00 PM