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Songbird-transported tick Ixodes minor (Ixodida: Ixodidae) discovered in Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2014

John D. Scott  and
Lance A. Durden
John D. Scott*
Affiliation:
Lyme Disease Association of Ontario, Research Division, 365 St. David Street South, Fergus, Ontario, Canada N1M 2L7
Lance A. Durden
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Georgia Southern University, 4324 Old Register Road, Statesboro, Georgia 30458, United States of America
*
1Corresponding author (e-mail: jkscott@bserv.com).
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Abstract

Ticks are carried into Canada by millions of birds during spring migration, and some of these blood-sucking ectoparasites harbour tick-associated pathogens. During a pan-Canadian study of ticks on avian hosts, we identified an extralimital tick, Ixodes minor Neumann (Ixodida: Ixodidae) collected from a Common Yellowthroat, Geothlypis trichas (Linnaeus) (Passeriformes: Parulidae) at Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Although the I. minor larva was not tested for any tick-borne pathogens, this tick species is considered a competent enzootic vector of the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi Johnson, Schmid, Hyde, Steigerwalt, and Brenner sensu lato (s.l.). Epidemiologically, diverse B. burgdorferi s.l. genospecies have been detected in, or isolated from I. minor, and this tick species potentially represents a public health risk not only in the southeastern United States of America, where I. minor is indigenous, but also in Canada. This tick collection is the northernmost report of I. minor in North America, and constitutes the first documentation of this tick species in Canada.

Type
Behaviour & Ecology
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 147 , Issue 1 , February 2015 , pp. 46 - 50
Copyright
© Entomological Society of Canada 2014 

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Footnotes

Subject editor: Heather Proctor

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