Infections in the natural environment of British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

The Canadian province of British Columbia has a luxurious environment, complete with the multitude of wildlife and insects, and would at first glance appear to be suitable for the transmission of diseases in nature communicable to humans. Despite this potential, such diseases are relatively uncommon, although several have the potential for serious consequences. Attention has been recently focused on hantavirus infection, water-borne toxoplasmosis and parasitic diarrheal diseases, cryptococcosis on Vancouver Island, and rabies. West Nile virus has not yet caused endemic human infection in this province as of 2008. We review the cumulative science in this area.

Major emerging vector-borne zoonotic diseases of public health importance in Canada

“…In contrast, significant risk exists or is emerging across the range of I. scapularis , with the exception, for now, of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Prince Edward island; populations of infected ticks are established in southern parts of Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, and in certain locations in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 11 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 …”

“…The intensity of WNV activity has varied greatly among years and appears associated with a range of ecological factors affecting mosquito and bird population parameters, 14 , 73 , 74 with the first epidemic associated with the initial invasion of WNV into wild reservoir and vector populations in 2001/2002 in Ontario and Quebec, and 2002/2003 in the Prairies, and then epidemic ‘re-emergence' events in 2007 in the Prairies and in 2012 in Ontario and Quebec. Certainly the 2007 epidemic in the prairie provinces was associated with a combination of unusual weather events (a particularly warm winter of 2006 followed by a particularly warm and wet spring of 2007) that drove unprecedented abundance of Cx.…”

“…JCV and SSHV are mosquito-borne viruses belonging to the California serogroup (CSG) of bunyaviruses. 14 , 110 JCV is widely distributed throughout North America; both SSHV and JCV were first identified as the causal agents of febrile and neurological illness in Canada during the late 1970s and 1980s; however, routine testing had not been conducted for almost 20 years. 111 Recently, enhanced testing for CSG virus-associated disease has resulted in the identification of new neuroinvasive and non-neuroinvasive cases associated with these bunyaviruses 111 , 112 (Drebot et al , unpublished data).…”