Introduction
Background
Ixodes scapularis (deer tick) and I. pacificus (western black-legged tick) are
black-legged ticks which are the primary organisms (disease vectors) that carry and transmit the bacterium
Borrelia burgdorferi, the primary causative agent of Lyme disease in humans. The Alberta Submit-a-Tick Program monitors the
types and distribution of tick species in Alberta and contributes to evaluating the risk of acquiring
tick-borne Lyme disease within Alberta.
Alberta has monitored ticks through passive surveillance since 2013 to identify numbers and trends of
Ixodes ticks capable of transmitting B. burgdorferi. In 2021, Alberta Health partnered
with Alberta Precision Laboratories (APL) and eTick to
update the
Submit-a-Tick program. Veterinary practices and members of the public can submit photos of ticks they find
on themselves, in the environment, or on pets or livestock through the eTick website or app for species
identification. eTick notifies a submitter if a tick of interest (e.g. Ixodes species) is
identified and requests that they send the specimen to APL to test for B. burgdorferi. The first
complete year of laboratory testing data after the transition to eTick was in 2022. In 2021, Ixodes
ticks identified through eTick could not be submitted to APL for testing until August 2021, so the B.
burgdorferi testing data are not complete for that year and should be interpreted with caution.
Using This Report
Interactive figures allow users to filter data in interactive plots. To do this, select or deselect
categories of interest in the figure legend at the bottom of each figure. Other tools for examining data,
such as zooming in on different parts of the plot, are available in the figure task bar on the top-right of
each figure.