Lyme disease is one of the many diseases transmitted by ticks. The rate of these diseases is rapidly increasing in Canada. Diagnosing these diseases is difficult but examination of biopsy, necropsy and autopsy tissue can help to understand the full and varied effects of the disease and ultimately reduce misdiagnoses. Biobanks are required for this type of research.
Ticks contain many different disease-causing bacteria and viruses, including the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. Multiple infections with these other pathogens in addition to Borrelia cause more severe illness. For many of these pathogens there are no or limited diagnostic tools available to detect the pathogen. This project includes production of a new product, a rapid
screening tool for multiple tick pathogens. This product would allow ticks to be simultaneously screened for the presence of multiple, clinically important pathogens.
Domestication of cats is thought to date to the Neolithic and to have been driven by the need to control rodents that destroyed stored food. In developed countries, modern pest control methods have rendered the traditional role of cats largely redundant and the hunting tendency of cats is now viewed in a more negative light as contributing to the decline of birds. However, increasing residential use of formerly agricultural and wild areas are leading to increased human and wildlife contact.
To assess people’s risk of contracting Lyme disease in New Brunswick we will test 700 dogs for antibodies to the bacterium that causes the disease. Lyme disease is caused by infection with the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, generally transmitted through a tick bite. Lyme disease is a debilitating disease and the risk of contracting it is increasing in in New Brunswick as well as through the rest of Canada. Because diagnosis of Lyme disease is difficult in humans, we are using dogs as a sentinel species.
Environmental Proteomics NB is a biotechnology design and production company that develops systems to measure levels of important proteins, in particular proteins involved in major environmental and industrial processes. Environmental Proteomics uses computational analyses of genetic and protein data, or bioinformatics, to develop these molecular systems to detect and quantitate specific proteins, even in the presence of complex contaminating mixtures.
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