Manisha Kulkarni

Spread of tick populations and rising rates of Lyme disease in Ottawa highlight the importance of effective strategies to minimize human exposure in recreational areas. New research has shown woodchips to be the secret weapon to keeping ticks off recreational woodland trails, including eliminating nearly all Lyme disease-carriers when treated with insecticide. The two-year experimental field study led by Katarina Ost, doctoral candidate at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa under Manisha A. Kulkarni’s supervision … provided evidence that both treated and untreated woodchip interventions can effectively reduce tick populations in a recreational context, a simple and cost-effective way for communities to combat these critters. “This study shows that different environmental management strategies can be effective in reducing the number of host-seeking ticks along trail edges, where people are likely to encounter them,” said Dr. Kulkarni, a Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine’s School of Epidemiology and Public Health.