RESEARCH ARTICLE


Evolving Perspectives on Lyme Borreliosis in Canada



JLH Sperling1, 2, MJ Middelveen2, D Klein3, FAH Sperling*, 1
1 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
2 Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, West Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
3 Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada


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Creative Commons License
© Sperling et al.; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E9 Canada; Tel: 1-780-492-3991;Fax: (780) 492-9234; E-mail: felix.sperling@ualberta.ca


Abstract

With cases now documented in every province, Lyme borreliosis (LB) is emerging as a serious public health risk in Canada. Controversy over the contribution of LB to the burden of chronic disease is maintained by difficulty in capturing accurate Canadian statistics, especially early clinical cases of LB. The use of dogs as sentinel species demon-strates that potential contact with Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes, as detected by C6 peptide, extends across the country. Dissemination of infected ticks by migratory birds and rapid establishment of significant levels of infection have been well described. Canadian public health response has focused on identification of established populations of the tick vectors, Ixodes scapularis and I. pacificus, on the assumption that these are the only important vectors of the disease across Canada. Strains of B. burgdorferi circulating in Canada and the full range of their reservoir species and coinfections remain to be explored. Ongoing surveys and historical records demonstrate that Borrelia-positive Ixodes species are regu-larly present in regions of Canada that have previously been considered to be outside of the ranges of these species in re-cent modeling efforts. We present data demonstrating that human cases of LB are found across the nation. Consequently, physician education and better early diagnoses are needed to prevent long term sequelae. An international perspective will be paramount for developing improved Canadian guidelines that recognize the complexity and diversity of Lyme borreliosis.

Keywords:: Borrelia burgdorferi, chronic disease, Ixodes, public health, zoonotic disease.