Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
4,978
result(s) for
"tick-borne disease"
Sort by:
The case of the infected tick
\"Learn about diseases and their symptoms such as Lyme disease, HIV, and Malaria among others\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
What is the value of testing for tick-borne diseases in cattle in endemic areas? A case study of bovine anaplasmosis
Anaplasmosis is a tick-borne disease (TBDs) caused by Anaplasma spp. In areas where TBDs are endemic, it is crucial to consider the animals’ immunological status in relation to these diseases. The true prevalence of bovine anaplasmosis, the percentage of animals with protective antibodies against this TBD, and the diagnostic characteristics of three tests (multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR), competitive-inhibition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA), and blood smear (BS)) were estimated using a Bayesian approach. A total of 620 samples were collected in two subtropical areas of Ecuador. A significant finding of this study is that approximately 70% of cattle in those endemic areas harbored protective antibodies against Anaplasma marginale . This elevated percentage may stem from persistent exposure with a high pathogen prevalence in ticks. The decline in cELISA specificity must be attributed to cross-reactivity with protective antibodies against Anaplasma spp. It is crucial to interpret this test outcome alongside exposure history and clinical manifestations. The elevated apparent prevalence detected by cELISA and BS should be contextualized with mPCR results. The high seroprevalence and infrequent clinical outbreaks suggest that the pathogen has achieved endemic stability. This study provides valuable insights into the dynamics of anaplasmosis in endemic areas and may serve as a foundation for devising TBDs control strategies in these areas.
Journal Article
The Contribution of Wildlife Hosts to the Rise of Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases in North America
Wildlife vertebrate hosts are integral to enzootic cycles of tick-borne pathogens, and in some cases have played key roles in the recent rise of ticks and tick-borne diseases in North America. In this forum article, we highlight roles that wildlife hosts play in the maintenance and transmission of zoonotic, companion animal, livestock, and wildlife tick-borne pathogens. We begin by illustrating how wildlife contribute directly and indirectly to the increase and geographic expansion of ticks and their associated pathogens. Wildlife provide blood meals for tick growth and reproduction; serve as pathogen reservoirs; and can disperse ticks and pathogens—either through natural movement (e.g., avian migration) or through human-facilitated movement (e.g., wildlife translocations and trade). We then discuss opportunities to manage tick-borne disease through actions directed at wildlife hosts. To conclude, we highlight key gaps in our understanding of the ecology of tick–host interactions, emphasizing that wildlife host communities are themselves a very dynamic component of tick–pathogen–host systems and therefore complicate management of tick-borne diseases, and should be taken into account when considering host-targeted approaches. Effective management of wildlife to reduce tick-borne disease risk further requires consideration of the ‘human dimensions’ of wildlife management.This includes understanding the public's diverse views and values about wildlife and wildlife impacts—including the perceived role of wildlife in fostering tick-borne diseases. Public health agencies should capitalize on the expertise of wildlife agencies when developing strategies to reduce tick-borne disease risks.
Journal Article
A New Segmented Virus Associated with Human Febrile Illness in China
A group of patients with a febrile illness and a history of tick bites was identified in northeastern China. A previously unknown virus was determined to be a possible etiologic agent. This virus was also found in ticks in the area.
Journal Article
Possible Effects of Climate Change on Ixodid Ticks and the Pathogens They Transmit: Predictions and Observations
The global climate has been changing over the last century due to greenhouse gas emissions and will continue to change over this century, accelerating without effective global efforts to reduce emissions. Ticks and tick-borne diseases (TTBDs) are inherently climate-sensitive due to the sensitivity of tick lifecycles to climate. Key direct climate and weather sensitivities include survival of individual ticks, and the duration of development and host-seeking activity of ticks. These sensitivities mean that in some regions a warming climate may increase tick survival, shorten life-cycles and lengthen the duration of tick activity seasons. Indirect effects of climate change on host communities may, with changes in tick abundance, facilitate enhanced transmission of tick-borne pathogens. High temperatures, and extreme weather events (heat, cold, and flooding) are anticipated with climate change, and these may reduce tick survival and pathogen transmission in some locations. Studies of the possible effects of climate change on TTBDs to date generally project poleward range expansion of geographical ranges (with possible contraction of ranges away from the increasingly hot tropics), upslope elevational range spread in mountainous regions, and increased abundance of ticks in many current endemic regions. However, relatively few studies, using long-term (multi-decade) observations, provide evidence of recent range changes of tick populations that could be attributed to recent climate change. Further integrated ‘One Health’ observational and modeling studies are needed to detect changes in TTBD occurrence, attribute them to climate change, and to develop predictive models of public- and animal-health needs to plan for TTBD emergence.
Journal Article
Trends and Opportunities in Tick-Borne Disease Geography
Tick-borne diseases are a growing problem in many parts of the world, and their surveillance and control touch on challenging issues in medical entomology, agricultural health, veterinary medicine, and biosecurity. Spatial approaches can be used to synthesize the data generated by integrative One Health surveillance systems, and help stakeholders, managers, and medical geographers understand the current and future distribution of risk. Here, we performed a systematic review of over 8,000 studies and identified a total of 303 scientific publications that map tick-borne diseases using data on vectors, pathogens, and hosts (including wildlife, livestock, and human cases). We find that the field is growing rapidly, with the major Ixodes-borne diseases (Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis in particular) giving way to monitoring efforts that encompass a broader range of threats. We find a tremendous diversity of methods used to map tick-borne disease, but also find major gaps: data on the enzootic cycle of tick-borne pathogens is severely underutilized, and mapping efforts are mostly limited to Europe and North America. We suggest that future work can readily apply available methods to track the distributions of tick-borne diseases in Africa and Asia, following a One Health approach that combines medical and veterinary surveillance for maximum impact.
Journal Article
Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, an emerging tick-borne zoonosis
Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging haemorrhagic fever that was first described in rural areas of China. The causative agent, SFTS virus (SFTSV), is a novel phlebovirus in the Bunyaviridae family. Since the first report in 2010, SFTS has been found in 11 provinces of China, with about 2500 reported cases, and an average case-fatality rate of 7·3%. The disease was also reported in Japan and Korea in 2012; Heartland virus, another phlebovirus genetically closely related to SFTSV, was isolated from two patients in the USA. The disease has become a substantial risk to public health, not only in China, but also in other parts of the world. The virus could undergo rapid evolution by gene mutation, reassortment, and homologous recombination in tick vectors and vertebrate reservoir hosts. No specific treatment of SFTS is available, and avoiding tick bites is an important measure to prevent the infection and transmission of SFTSV. This Review provides information on the molecular characteristics and ecology of this emerging tick-borne virus and describes the epidemiology, clinical signs, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of human infection with SFTSV.
Journal Article
Rickettsia sibirica mongolitimonae Infections in Spain and Case Review of the Literature
Rickettsia sibirica mongolitimonae is an emerging cause of tickborne rickettsiosis. Since the bacterium was first documented as a human pathogen in 1996, a total of 69 patients with this infection have been reported in the literature. Because of the rising rate of R. sibirica mongolitimonae infection cases, we evaluated the epidemiologic and clinical features of 29 patients who had R. sibirica mongolitimonae infections confirmed during 2007-2024 at the Center for Rickettsiosis and Arthropod-Borne Diseases, the reference laboratory of San Pedro University Hospital-Center for Biomedical Research of La Rioja, Logroño, Spain. We also reviewed all cases published in the literature during 1996-2024, evaluating features of 94 cases of R. sibirica mongolitimonae infection (89 in Europe, 4 in Africa, and 1 in Asia). Clinicians should consider R. sibirica mongolitimonae as a potential causative agent of rickettsiosis, and doxycycline should be administered promptly to avoid clinical complications.
Journal Article
Mapping ticks and tick-borne pathogens in China
Understanding ecological niches of major tick species and prevalent tick-borne pathogens is crucial for efficient surveillance and control of tick-borne diseases. Here we provide an up-to-date review on the spatial distributions of ticks and tick-borne pathogens in China. We map at the county level 124 tick species, 103 tick-borne agents, and human cases infected with 29 species (subspecies) of tick-borne pathogens that were reported in China during 1950−2018.
Haemaphysalis longicornis
is found to harbor the highest variety of tick-borne agents, followed by
Ixodes persulcatus
,
Dermacentor nutalli
and
Rhipicephalus microplus
. Using a machine learning algorithm, we assess ecoclimatic and socioenvironmental drivers for the distributions of 19 predominant vector ticks and two tick-borne pathogens associated with the highest disease burden. The model-predicted suitable habitats for the 19 tick species are 14‒476% larger in size than the geographic areas where these species were detected, indicating severe under-detection. Tick species harboring pathogens of imminent threats to public health should be prioritized for more active field surveillance.
Ticks are an important vector of disease in China, posing threats to humans, livestock and wild animals. Here, Zhao et al. compile a database of the distributions of the 124 tick species known in China and 103 tick-borne pathogens and predict the additional suitable habitats for the predominant vector species.
Journal Article
Tick-borne disease risk in a forest food web
Changes to the community ecology of hosts for zoonotic pathogens, particularly rodents, are likely to influence the emergence and prevalence of zoonotic diseases worldwide. However, the complex interactions between abiotic factors, pathogens, vectors, hosts, and both food resources and predators of hosts are difficult to disentangle. Here we (1) use 19 yr of data from six large field plots in southeastern New York to compare the effects of hypothesized drivers of interannual variation in Lyme disease risk, including the abundance of acorns, rodents, and deer, as well as a series of climate variables; and (2) employ landscape epidemiology to explore how variation in predator community structure and forest cover influences spatial variation in the infection prevalence of ticks for the Lyme disease bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, and two other important tick-borne pathogens, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Babesia microti. Acorn-driven increases in the abundance of mice were correlated with a lagged increase in the abundance of questing nymph-stage Ixodes scapularis ticks infected with Lyme disease bacteria. Abundance of white-tailed deer 2 yr prior also correlated with increased density of infected nymphal ticks, although the effect was weak. Density of rodents in the current year was a strong negative predictor of nymph density, apparently because high current abundance of these hosts can remove nymphs from the host-seeking population. Warm, dry spring or winter weather was associated with reduced density of infected nymphs. At the landscape scale, the presence of functionally diverse predator communities or of bobcats, the only obligate carnivore, was associated with reduced infection prevalence of I. scapularis nymphs with all three zoonotic pathogens. In the case of Lyme disease, infection prevalence increased where coyotes were present but smaller predators were displaced or otherwise absent. For all pathogens, infection prevalence was lowest when forest cover within a 1 km radius was high. Taken together, our results suggest that a food web perspective including bottom-up and top-down forcing is needed to understand drivers of tick-borne disease risk, a result that may also apply to other rodent-borne zoonoses. Prevention of exposure based on ecological indicators of heightened risk should help protect public health.
Journal Article