Ticks found on Yellowknife dogs
Parasites spotted last summer has vet warning clients
Elaine Anselmi
Northern News Services
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
With very particular tastes for climate and hosts, ticks haven't historically been a problem for domestic animals in the city.
It's unclear whether it is the deer tick that was found in dogs by veterinarian Michael Hughes last summer but that is one possibility. This particular type of tick is normally established further south and not in the city. - photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons |
But for the first time since opening his clinic in 2012, and even years before that while working at the Great Slave Animal Hospital, veterinarian Michael Hughes found the parasites on two dogs last summer.
"I haven't seen any ticks in dogs from Yellowknife ever until last summer," he said.
"It first came up with three dogs who have only ever lived in Yellowknife and the owner, according to what she told me, hadn't left Yellowknife in a decade."
The owner told him she had just been walking around McMahon Frame Lake Trail with her dogs when two out of the three of them had ticks attached, Hughes said.
Previously, when dogs were found to have ticks in the city it was attributed to trips down south where they are established.
The only tick established in the Northwest Territories is the winter tick, or moose tick, which attaches itself to wildlife - mostly moose but they have been found on caribou.
This variety of one-host tick - meaning it attaches to only one type of animal, such as moose - is unlikely to attach itself to a domestic animal even if it were in range of one, said Brett Elkin, a wildlife veterinarian and manager of wildlife research and management with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Although in the past there have been cases of dogs having winter ticks, the proximity of wildlife to Yellowknife makes it less likely in this case, said Susan Kutz, an associate professor in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary, who studies wildlife parasitology in the North.
What is more likely found on a dog is a deer tick, although the normal range of this species is just north of Edmonton or Saskatoon, but not nearly as far as Yellowknife. The transfer of these ticks is possible through migratory birds, Kutz said. The parasite attaches to a bird and is then dropped off and finds another host - although she said, if this is the case it is unlikely the tick will be able to establish in the new area, particularly with both a male and female tick required to lay eggs.
These ticks, unlike moose ticks, do have more than one host, so are more likely to attach to a dog or other animal. It's deer ticks that can carry lime disease but not yet knowing what kind of ticks were taken off of the dogs in Yellowknife, Hughes said it's not known whether they were carriers.
American dog ticks are the aptly named more common ticks found on dogs, but again their range is much farther south than the NWT.
"We don't have evidence that they're established in the territory but you do have coyotes up there a lot more than when I was there," said Kutz. "If it is established, maybe it's cycling through them but I would be surprised if it was established. It's way outside of its range, but there's also been no surveillance of the dog tick."
While there is monitoring of the winter tick and general awareness of the parasite in moose and caribou, Kutz said wolves or coyotes are rarely considered to be carriers.
With temperatures rising across the North, the range of the winter tick is extending in the territory. Kutz's team has only started seeing winter ticks establish themselves as far North as the Sahtu in the past decade.
"The first report in the Sahtu of moose with hair loss was somewhere between 2005 and 2003," said Kutz.
Around 2010, Kutz said one of her students consistently found ticks on moosehide from Tulita, Deline and Norman Wells, as well as a few from Fort Good Hope.
"It is becoming increasing common," said Kutz.
While ticks that are particularly problematic for domestic animals are not known to be established in the territory, Hughes said he still advises clients who spend a good deal of time out in the bush to check their pets.
"They can be anywhere on a dog and lots of times dogs won't scratch," he said. And as for the ticks found last summer, he said he is still pursuing an answer as to what kind of tick they were.
This is encouraged by Kutz, who highlighted the importance of identifying the type of tick found on these dogs and any in the future.
"I would certainly encourage people to report them and get them identified," said Kutz. "If it starts to increase, it's worth a deeper more in-depth look."
