There May One Day Be A Lyme Vaccine
Just maybe not anytime soon. While several are currently in development, it typically takes a decade or more for a vaccine to wend its way through clinical trials before satisfying regulators that it's both safe and effective for wide-spread dissemination. And that's if everything goes to plan. Hit a snag anywhere along the way and that can result in delays or even scotch what seemed like a promising candidate. So while there has long been a vaccine available for your dog, don't hold your breath there will be one for you anytime soon. The one closest to approval also requires four doses to reach effective levels, so be prepared to roll up your sleeve over and over again. This article in The National Post gives a good rundown of where things currently stand.

Retired Nova Scotia Wildlife Biologist Gets It Done
Curious to learn more about tick populations in his neighbourhood, a retired NS wildlife biologist tied an old t-shirt to a ski pole and spent five years systematically dragging the woods behind his home each May hoping to capture some ticks. He later handed the hundreds of ticks in his collection over to researchers for further study. Read the article on CBC News.

When I was scanning tick related headlines the other day, I ran across a story that made me growl. It was this story about alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) which, in the last several years, has become something of a media darling in Canada. AGS is a rare red meat allergy that is sometimes (read: rarely) caused by the bite of a lone star tick, and has the potential to be quite severe. In the case highlighted in the linked article, it was fatal. So, yikes!

I was scrolling through the list of ticks catalogued on this site the other day and noticed that a few are missing that deserve to be mentioned. Ixodes spinipalpis (no common name), for instance. The fact that this tick has no common name gives away something important about it: it's not very well known.