Community initiated Research
Many of our projects, past, current and planned, have been initiated in response to requests from communities and have been carried out with the help of the public.
Some of these community-initiated and driven projects are described to the left.
We welcome comments and suggestions on research priorities. But please note, science is not fast, cheap or magic. As an example, a project such as "what percentage of ticks in my community carry Lyme disease?" will cost about $2,000 for reagents (the students and I volunteer our time), and it takes approximately 6 months-1 year for get a grant to fund the work. The project itself then takes an additional 6 months - 1 year. And we can only look for known pathogens using the methodology we have - we can look for known Lyme disease disease pathogens but not "something is causing clusters of ALS-like disease in my community. Could it be something in ticks?". This is a critically important problem - but not one that is easy to solve. Community initiated projects are described to the left and a description of current research is on the "team" page.
Active surveillance for ticks in communities
We have been approached by a number of communities wanting active surveillance (tick dragging) and testing of ticks in their communities. In 2014 we did multiple tick drags across the province. The demand outstrips our resources however, so we have also been training people in the community to do tick drags. This training will be coming on line shortly as the "tickopedia" project, which will provide on-line resources on how to do tick drags. If you wish to do a tick drag in your community, please feel free to contact us. We are happy to identify and test ticks found in community tick drags.
Borrelia infection rate in BC ticks
This project was intitiated in response to community concerns that the province-wide tick infection rate did not reflect what was happening in their community.
Many of our projects, past, current and planned, have been initiated in response to requests from communities and have been carried out with the help of the public.
Some of these community-initiated and driven projects are described to the left.
We welcome comments and suggestions on research priorities. But please note, science is not fast, cheap or magic. As an example, a project such as "what percentage of ticks in my community carry Lyme disease?" will cost about $2,000 for reagents (the students and I volunteer our time), and it takes approximately 6 months-1 year for get a grant to fund the work. The project itself then takes an additional 6 months - 1 year. And we can only look for known pathogens using the methodology we have - we can look for known Lyme disease disease pathogens but not "something is causing clusters of ALS-like disease in my community. Could it be something in ticks?". This is a critically important problem - but not one that is easy to solve. Community initiated projects are described to the left and a description of current research is on the "team" page.
Active surveillance for ticks in communities
We have been approached by a number of communities wanting active surveillance (tick dragging) and testing of ticks in their communities. In 2014 we did multiple tick drags across the province. The demand outstrips our resources however, so we have also been training people in the community to do tick drags. This training will be coming on line shortly as the "tickopedia" project, which will provide on-line resources on how to do tick drags. If you wish to do a tick drag in your community, please feel free to contact us. We are happy to identify and test ticks found in community tick drags.
Borrelia infection rate in BC ticks
This project was intitiated in response to community concerns that the province-wide tick infection rate did not reflect what was happening in their community.