Reply to Comment on “Distribution of Ixodes scapularis in Northwestern Ontario: Results from Active and Passive Surveillance Activities in the Northwestern Health Unit Catchment Area”
We thank Mr. Scott for his comments on our 2013 discovery of Amblyomma cajennense in northwestern Ontario, through passive surveillance. The tick was collected from a human in August 2013; however, information on travel history and stage are not available. The tick was identified using standard morphological identification keys available in 2013, a year before the work of Nava et al. [1] was available. We did not deposit the tick as a voucher specimen in a collection and realize this was an oversight on our part. We appreciate Mr. Scott’s comment on depositing a voucher specimen and will do so in future work. A. cajennense (n = 1) was included for completeness when we presented our passive surveillance results. A. cajennense is not mentioned elsewhere in the paper and is not integral to our primary objective of describing Ixodes scapularis distribution and Borrelia burgdorferi prevalence in northwestern Ontario.