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NATIONAL TICK AWARENESS MONTH MAY BE OVER, BUT TICKS ARE JUST GETTING STARTED!
April 17, 2026
We are thrilled that close to 600 veterinary team members registered for the National Tick Awareness Month Kick-Off Webinar which took place on March 2nd, 2026. If you missed it, there is still time to watch - just follow this link for immediate access: National Tick Awareness Month Kick-Off 2026.
During the webinar, attendees were encouraged to ask questions. Below we have provided answers to the Top 4 questions that were asked to our speakers, Dr. Victoria Wagner and Dr. Scott Stevenson, to be sure these valuable learnings can be shared across our veterinary community.
The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association and Merck Animal Health want to thank you for your engagement and support of National Tick Awareness Month. Together we are raising awareness for ticks and tick borne diseases in Canada to protect animals and the people wo care for them.
TOP 4 Q&A FROM NTAM 2026 KICK-OFF WEBINAR
Dr. Wagner, are there any resources for parasite and tickborne disease endemic areas in Canada?
We are fortunate to have multiple resources to help us better understand the risks of ticks and tick-borne diseases in Canada.
There are government monitoring websites, such as the Public Health Agency of Canada Tick‑Borne Disease Surveillance Dashboard which can be found at health-infobase.canada.ca/zoonoses/ticks/explore-data.html
Etick.ca is another excellent resource and is a public platform for image-based identification and population monitoring of ticks in Canada. This website not only provides a map demonstrating where ticks have been submitted and which species was identified but also allows for the submission of pictures of ticks found by you or your clients and provides free identification.
There are also excellent educational resources, such as the National Tick Awareness Month website, ticktalkcanada.com, and a “tick risk forecast” website at tickmaps.ca. There is also a comprehensive American resource, capcvet.org, with a great deal of educational materials related to ticks and all parasites affecting dogs and cats in North America. The Canadian Parasitology Expert Panel is another resource which speaks directly to the Canadian parasite reality.
Dr. Wagner, are only adult female Ixodes scapularis ticks active in winter?
No, males can also be active during winter. We discuss females more often as they're the ones that take those long and voluminous blood meals (and therefore pose the greatest risk for pathogen transmission) and more readily feed on larger hosts.
Dr. Wagner, what is the temperature where ticks are active? Are all tick species the same?
We do tend to spend a lot of time in Canada talking about Ixodes scapularis ticks, and the activity of these ticks is greatly impacted by temperature. We do however have another established tick in Central and Eastern Canada, Dermacentor variabilis. You can find more details on these species differences at ticktalkcanada.com.
It is a bit of a ‘grey zone’ when discussing Ixodes scapularis tick activity and temperature.
Ticks are excellent at surviving our Canadian winters. They have several mechanisms which help them to survive extremely cold temperatures (just look at how well Ixodes scapularis is doing in Manitoba!). Add this to the unpredictable climate we have been experiencing in Canada, and using a specific temperature to determine when pets are at risk is challenging.
The most widely referenced temperature threshold for activity of adult Ixodes scapularis continues to be 4oC. This is the number referenced in the 2019 Canadian Parasitology Expert Panel guidelines. When discussing tick activity and temperature, we have to recognize the limitation of speaking to “ambient temperature” and recognize that temperature in certain microenvironments (ie. under the forest canopy, in direct sunlight in an area of melting snow) is very different than the ambient temperature. We have seen animals acquire ticks when the ambient temperature is well below zero. However, where that animal went to acquire the tick must have been an appropriate temperature for questing.
Generally, when we see 0oC referenced in the literature, it is referring to “degree-days >0oC”, which is how researchers often choose to investigate the impact of temperature on parasite activity in field settings. It does not imply that tick activity begins at 0oC.
Though we may not be able to pinpoint the exact temperature when Ixodes scapularis ticks become active, the ultimate goal is for pet owners to appreciate that ticks can be active when it is cold outside and to stay vigilant, especially with our unpredictable climate. When you can’t predict, protect!
Dr. Stevenson, how can pets who are on tick control medications still test positive for vector-borne disease?
It is important to remember that tick control medications are only one part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce the risk of disease exposure to our pets.
When a pet that has received tick control medications tests positive for a vector-borne disease, there are several considerations. A pet might have been infected weeks to months before beginning tick prevention, but only tests positive later. Also, in some cases, though medication may be purchased, there may be missed doses, delays in administration or application errors which would impact the efficacy of the tick control product. Finally, it is important to recognize that even highly efficacious preventives will have a delay between tick exposure and tick death. In some cases, this may be sufficient for disease transmission to occur.
There is strong consensus regarding the use of a tick control medication to reduce the risk of tick-borne disease, such as Lyme disease. Tick control medications target multiple species of ticks and therefore offer protection against the transmission of multiple pathogens by killing the tick. For example, Ixodes scapularis can transmit both Borrelia burgdorferi and Anaplasma phagocytophilum. The Lyme vaccine only offers protection against one pathogen.
The available Lyme vaccines are considered to be efficacious for the entire year. They should be used as part of the 3-pronged approach, which includes (in order):
- Daily tick checks and prompt removal of ticks when found
- Use of tick control medication throughout the risk period
- Lyme vaccination (if indicated)
When determining the appropriate prevention protocol for any pet, it is important to consider the tick species in the area and the endemic disease risk, as well as that pet’s lifestyle including travel (both local and long-distance), and owner compliance.