Tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, is a plague-like illness that was first documented in Tulare, California in 1911. We know little about tularemia in Canada except that it appears to be rare in this country. The first known Canadian case was recorded in Timmins, Ontario in 1930, and the disease is considered to be endemic in Central and Western Canada, less so in the east.
Lyme disease is a complex multi-system inflammatory illness that's caused by the bite of a tick infected with one of several closely related species of borrelia bacteria, including Borrelia burgdorferi which is responsible for the majority of cases in Canada. Lyme disease is, by far, the most common tick-borne illness in Canada and is pretty much the only one most Canadians can name.
That said, our understanding of Lyme disease in Canada is in its infancy and, much to the frustration of a great many patients, the unknowns far outweigh the knowns.
Little is known about squirrel ticks but, as their name suggests, they feed primarily on tree squirrels and, to a lesser extent, on snowshoe hares. They also feed on animals that prey on squirrels. The many records from the Maritimes through to Ontario suggest these ticks are well established in much of Eastern Canada.
Lone star ticks are one of the easiest ticks to identify thanks to a conspicuous bright white dot located on the back of adult females.
The winter or moose tick (Dermacentor albipictus) is a large reddish-brown to grey-brown tick that's similar in appearance to other dermacentor tick species (American dog ticks, Rocky Mountain wood ticks) found in Canada and inhabits an extensive geographic area that includes every Canadian province and territory. The farthest north they've been found is southern Yukon.
Little is known about beaver ticks. These native ticks have been collected in Ontario as far north as the southern shores of Hudson's Bay, in Manitoba and, rarely, in Nova Scotia.
The Asian longhorned tick (Haemaphysalis longicornis) is not native to Canada but it has started to cause concerns in this country.
Once confined to Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Russia and several Pacific islands, Asian longhorned ticks were detected for the first time in the wilds of New Jersey in 2017 after occasionally turning up on imported animals at American seaports. Thanks to some entomological detective work, we now know that Asian longhorned ticks have been making their home in New Jersey since as far back as 2013. And they’re spreading fast. Between 2013 and 2023, breeding populations went from non-existent to spanning at least 19 US states.
First described in 1899, the coastal bird tick is native to BC. However, it's not terribly well studied and little is known about its life history. Early researchers describe it as being fairly common in coastal areas of the province where it mainly feeds on grouse.
What we know about this tick species is largely based on records from more than 50 years ago and scant research in recent years which show that specimens have been collected from at least 10 bird species in BC including sooty grouse and California quail.
Western blacklegged ticks (Ixodes pacificus) were first identified in 1904 and haven't been intensively studied in Canada, so a lot of the information we have is the product of research efforts that have been undertaken in the western US and occasional initiatives in this country.
Ornithodoros hermsi ticks are something of a mystery. Although first identified in 1935 and thought to be the cause of tick-borne relapsing fever in British Columbia, they have proven elusive and, as a result, very little research has been conducted on them in this country.