This undated photo provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a blacklegged tick, also known as a deer tick. There have been 17,080 reported cases of Lyme disease across Canada between 2009 and 2022.
There have been 17,080 reported cases of Lyme disease across Canada between 2009 and 2022, but while those numbers are likely an underestimate, they have grown dramatically in recent years according to data from theIn 2009, there were just 144 reported Lyme cases in Canada — but by 2021, those numbers had shot up dramatically to 3,147. Preliminary numbers for 2022 show at least 2,168 cases.
"There's quite a lot of evidence to support the idea that really a major driver of the emergence of the ticks has been recent climate change," he told CBC News. "They need a period of time that is warm enough, for long enough, for them to find a host to feed on … If it's too cool, they starve out," she said, adding that for the last 30 years much of Canada didn't have suitable conditions necessary for tick populations to expand.