COVID-19 has shown us how quickly a new disease can spread, upending our lives. Even if it doesn’t happen within our lifetimes, research suggests there will be another pandemic and it will likely happen through a disease that reaches humans from animals.
In Canada, the risk of diseases being passed from animals to humans is relatively low — but not zero. Based on existing trends, some scientists expect the rate of emergence of new diseases to triple over the next several decades due to increased interaction between humans and animals.
Invasive species — those that enter a new habitat and out-compete native wildlife — may also bring new diseases, which can be devastating.
With both native and invasive species often having no choice but to move through densely populated areas when searching for new habitats, there is a higher risk of those diseases being passed from animals to humans.
This is known as zoonosis.
Zoonosis events can lead to outbreaks of novel diseases, such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
In other cases, known carriers of existing human diseases are being given the opportunity to move into new areas, increasing the risk of transmission.
Here in Canada, many native and invasive species can host and transmit diseases — one of many reasons scientists are wary of species expanding into new areas.
Enter the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, found across the eastern provinces, and its cousin the western blacklegged tick, Ixodes pacificus, found on the Pacific Coast.
Blacklegged ticks are smaller than the common brown dog tick and can be vectors for Lyme disease. (Ben Garver/The Berkshire Eagle via The Associated Press)
Though not likely to cause a pandemic, in Canada, they are the only known carriers of Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, which has been on the rise over the past decade.
Blacklegged ticks, also known as deer ticks, were once a rare sight across Canada. Today, they are found across large parts of Ontario and other provinces, and more during the year than ever before.
Catherine Bouchard, a veterinary epidemiologist with the Public Health Agency of Canada and adjunct professor at the University of Montreal, has seen this first hand.
“Fifteen years ago … sampling for over six months per year, I would find maybe 1,000 ticks over a two-year period,” said Bouchard, who works primarily in the Estrie region of Quebec. “Nowadays, when we go out there in the same region … within two months, we are getting 1,000 ticks.”
This is the same trend seen across much of Canada, including Ontario, and Bouchard said it is expected to continue.
This has also led to a major increase in the number of cases of Lyme disease — an inflammatory disease that can start as a rash, headache, fever and chills, and develop into more serious issues like arthritis, long-lasting fatigue, and neurological and cardiac problems.
In order to transmit Lyme disease, a tick must remain attached for at least 24 hours, with the chance of transmission increasing significantly the longer it feeds, said Bouchard.
She added that although only about 20 per cent of ticks carry the disease-causing bacteria on average, it can be as high as 50 per cent in some areas.
Reported cases of Lyme disease across Ontario and Canada have been rising over the last decade. The data is from Public Health Ontario and the Public Health Agency of Canada. (CBC News)
Moving to new areas
These ticks are one of many species undergoing a range shift — moving north because of climate change.
“With key climate change drivers such as temperature but also precipitation … the weather that we are experiencing, that is changing, of course it has a direct impact on vector ticks,” said Bouchard.
A range shift occurs when species are forced to move out of their typical homes and into new areas that can support them.
You can see an example of that in Ontario, where blacklegged tick populations have spread since 2016.
Estimated Lyme disease risk areas in Ontario have been growing since 2016. These risk areas are based on where blacklegged ticks are found during active sampling by researchers. (CBC News)
Every species has a niche — a specific set of environmental constraints that must be met for survival and to reproduce. These include temperature, humidity, precipitation and the presence or absence of certain other species.
Climate change has affected these factors in habitats around the world. As a result, many species’ niches are less common or no longer exist within their historical range.
“Because of climate change, the conditions are changing throughout the range of all the species, and what was the region where they were having their optimum of abundance is shifting,” said Marie-Josée Fortin, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto.
“[Species] are finding that the location where they are is too hot, or too dry or too humid for them, so they have to move.”
Movement can be unpredictable, but generally, species tend to head toward cooler climates: toward the poles, to higher elevations or in the case of aquatic species, to lower depths.
These range shifts pose many challenges for individual species, ecosystems and even human communities.
Movement isn’t always easy
For some species, like caribou or migratory birds, movement is a natural part of their lives.
“They are used to moving through large regions,” Fortin said. “But other species, they cannot move that fast, right? So they need to slowly acquire some new habitat along the way.”
These discrepancies between species’ abilities to move to new habitats can make range shifts difficult even for those that can move with relative ease.
Not only do species need to have the right climate — they also need their resources, food and other members of their species to survive, Fortin explained.
New areas also mean new competition with new species, including humans.
“If you think of species from southern Ontario that are at the northern range of their limit in North America, to move north, what they are faced with is an agricultural landscape, so there’s not much habitat to colonize,” said Fortin.
“They are competing with humans for the best habitat that they could use.”
Even when trying to return land to its natural state by rehabilitating areas with native species, climate change is a big part of the conversation, said Tys Theysmeyer, head of natural lands at the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) in Hamilton.
That’s why more northern species, like hemlock trees, may not be part of planting efforts at the RBG in the future, even though they’re native to the area.
Many animals are capable of carrying and spreading invasive species to new areas. They include this common yellowthroat with ticks around its eyes. In the past, invasive species may have died in colder habitats, but climate change may allow them to establish themselves in new areas as they warm. (Submitted by Catherine Bouchard)
“We’re starting to think a little more about those slightly more southern plants as part of site restoration projects,” said Theysmeyer.
“And at the same time, you’re looking at, well, what are the trees that will march north into this area and be the foundation of the future forest.”
Range shifts can entail contractions or expansions
For many species, the term “range shift” is a bit of a misnomer.
Species at risk often face what is better described as a range contraction — where their southern range border moves faster than the northern one, causing its range to shrink.
This is also common for species that live on mountains. As the climate warms, their range shifts to a higher elevation, but eventually there is no mountain left to ascend.
Meanwhile, range shifts may drive other species to become invasive, harming other ecosystems they enter.
Indeed, invasive species, like blacklegged ticks, often enjoy range expansion as a result of climate change, as they gain more suitable habitat than they lose.
Even for migratory species like caribou, it can be difficult to travel through human-dominated landscapes. (Danita Delmont/Shutterstock)
For many protected areas, removal of invasive species is a top priority.
Climate change is threatening to make that even more difficult.
“In the climate we have, it’s usually the cold that [keeps invasive species away],” said Theysmeyer. “If the climate doesn’t get as cold, then what limits your survival in the winter no longer limits your survival and you start to move in.
“The impacts that we worry about more than anything are the Eurasian insects, or bacteria or plants that have made it to North America and are invasive species, but are held at bay by the fact that it gets too cold here in the winter,” he said.
“It’s definitely a thing we’re watching, everybody’s watching.”
Monitoring and solutions
Work is underway through research networks to track and monitor these shifts.
“By having these big networks of research, trying to track these emerging diseases, and I think that’s how we have a chance — just by doing that collective work, collective effort of all these different partners,” said Bouchard.
Disease emergence and pandemic vigilance have become a key focus of many jurisdictions in the wake of COVID-19, with the public, scientists and policymakers alike recognizing the dangers of being caught unaware.
Tys Theysmeyer, head of natural lands at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, says the RBG has to make hard decisions about which species to use in habitat restoration efforts based on whether they can survive in the RBG long term in the face of climate change. (Darius Mahdavi/CBC)
As for those working on the ground to help species affected by range shifts, it really comes down to helping nature do its thing.
One of the best ways to do this is to provide corridors or stepping stones of natural habitat so species can move across human-dominated landscapes to new habitats.
“Parks Canada has an initiative to create some corridors throughout the country,” Fortin said. “But it’s a work in progress.”
When restoring these areas, diversity is key.
“Rebuilding ecosystems is mostly about building resilience,” said Theysmeyer of the RBG. “The greater diversity you can have, the better.”
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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