Experts are reminding Manitoban residents to check for ticks this time of year.

Sarah Cormode is a consultant with the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation or CanLyme. She herself had Lyme disease a few years ago and she is now on a mission to educate others.

"I think it is really important that we talk about these things and raise awareness so that other people can get treated early on when they first become symptomatic because it is a very treatable disease in its early stages."

Cormode runs a podcast through CanLyme called Looking at Lyme with a strong focus on educating those that runs outdoor education programs.

"We want to make sure they are aware of how to keep young people safe and teach them how to do tick checks and then to know what to do with the ticks. If you can find that tick that has been embedded on you, testing for pathogens is way more successful and going to give you really accurate information compared to the current testing that we have for blood testing in Canada."

CanLyme says they have partnered with a company called Geneticks that is run by Justin Wood. Cormode notes if you find a black-legged tick that can carry Lyme disease, you can send it to them for testing.

"And, actually what we also funded this year through CanLyme is we took all of the data that Justin has collected with permission from his customers and he has created a map and so you can go onto the map and see where ticks have been submitted from across Canada and what kinds of diseases they might be carrying."

In addition to educating the public, Cormode says CanLyme is working with medical professionals.

"In June we will be offering grants to anyone in the healthcare field as well as physicians to get training in Lyme disease."

Cormode encourages any medical professionals who might be interested to reach out.

For more information, you can go to LookingAtLyme.ca or CanLyme.ca.