Wildlife diseases are generating growing concern on a global scale, for human health as well as for the health of wild and domestic animals. Lyme disease is one of the threat drawing the attention of authorities in Quebec. This disease discovered in the United States in the early 1980s is caused by a bacterium (Borrelia burgdorferi) which is transmitted by a vector, the black-legged tick (Ixodes scapularis). The white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) is the preferred host of this tick and is also known to be very effective to transmit the bacteria to larval ticks feeding on it. Our project aims to better understand the progression of the Lyme disease vector in Quebec, in time and space, as well as to assess the extent to which climate change and habitat fragmentation promote this expansion. Click here for more info.