PUBLICATIONS
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Original Abstract:
Zoonotic tick-borne diseases are an increasing health burden in Europe and there is speculation that this is partly due to climate change affecting vector biology and disease transmission. Data on the vector tick Ixodes ricinus suggest that an extension of its northern and altitude range has been accompanied by an increased prevalence of tick-borne encephalitis. Climate change may also be partly responsible for the change in distribution of Dermacentor reticulatus. Increased winter activity of I. ricinus is probably due to warmer winters and a retrospective study suggests that hotter summers will change the dynamics and pattern of seasonal activity, resulting in the bulk of the tick population becoming active in the latter part of the year. Climate suitabilitymodels predict that eight important tick species are likely to establish more northern permanent populations in a climate-warming scenario. However, the complex ecology and epidemiology of such tick-borne diseases as Lyme borreliosis and tick-borne encephalitis make it difficult to implicate climate change as the main cause of their increasing prevalence. Climate change models are required that take account of the dynamic biological.
Open Access:
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Original Abstract:
The present paper investigates the efficacy of common anti-tick repellents in Europe and in the USA. There were tested Ixodes ricinus, Dermacentor reticulatus, and Rhipcephalus sanguineus when they are placed onto hands and clothes of male and female humans being treated with common tick repellents. It was seen that DEET needed high concentrations to repel ticks, while essential oils are mostly inefficient. On the other hand saltidin = icaridin, p-menthan-diol and IR 3535 showed long-lasting effects, which in the case of combinations of saltidin and Vitex extracts were even increased.
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Notes from original paper:
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV; family Bunyaviridae, genus Nairovirus) causes outbreaks of severe hemorrhagic fever in humans, with case-fatality rates <30%. CCHFV is reported throughout broad regions of Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Reports linking transmission of the virus with an infected vector have involved ticks of the genus Hyalomma. In southeastern Europe, the Balkans are the known western limit for CCHFV (7). This finding is of special interest because Hyalomma marginatum, the main tick vector in the western Paleartic (an ecozone that includes temperate and cold areas of Eurasia and North Africa and several archipelagos and islands in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans), is common throughout the Mediterranean Basin (7), where clinical cases of the disease or the virus have not been reported. Unsupported claims of the effects of climate on virus distribution have been reported but never empirically demonstrated. In this paper is reported the detection of CCHFV in ticks collected in southwestern Europe.
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Original Abstract:
Many factors are involved in determining the latitudinal and altitudinal spread of the important tick vector Ixodes ricinus (Acari: Ixodidae) in Europe, as well as in changes in the distribution within its prior endemic zones. This paper builds on published literature and unpublished expert opinion from the VBORNET network with the aim of reviewing the evidence for these changes in Europe and discusses the many climatic, ecological, landscape and anthropogenic drivers. These can be divided into those directly related to climatic change, contributing to an expansion in the tick’s geographic range at extremes of altitude in central Europe, and at extremes of latitude in Scandinavia; those related to changes in the distribution of tick hosts, particularly roe deer and other cervids; other ecological changes such as habitat connectivity and changes in land management; and finally, anthropogenically induced changes. These factors are strongly interlinked and often not well quantified. Although a change in climate plays an important role in certain geographic regions, for much of Europe it is non-climatic factors that are becoming increasingly important. How we manage habitats on a landscape scale, and the changes in the distribution and abundance of tick hosts are important considerations during our assessment and management of the public health risks associated with ticks and tick-borne disease issues in 21st century Europe. Better understanding and mapping of the spread of I. ricinus (and changes in its abundance) is, however, essential to assess the risk of the spread of infections transmitted by this vector species. Enhanced tick surveillance with harmonized approaches for comparison of data enabling the follow-up of trends at EU level will improve the messages on risk related to tick-borne diseases to policy makers, other stake holders and to the general public.