Abstract
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a virus infection which sometimes causes human disease. The TBE virus is found in ticks and certain vertebrate tick hosts in restricted endemic localities termed TBE foci. The formation of natural foci is a combination of several factors: the vectors, a suitable and numerous enough number of hosts and in a habitat with suitable vegetation and climate. The present study investigated the influence of deer on the incidence of tick-borne encephalitis. We were able to obtain data from deer culls. Using this data, the abundance of deer was estimated and temporal and spatial analysis was performed. The abundance of deer has increased in the past decades, as well as the incidence of tick-borne encephalitis. Temporal analysis confirmed a correlation between red deer abundance and tick-borne encephalitis occurrence. Additionally, spatial analysis established, that in areas with high incidence of tick-borne encephalitis red deer density is higher, compared to areas with no or few human cases of tick-borne encephalitis. However, such correlation could not be confirmed between roe deer density and the incidence of tick-borne encephalitis. This is presumably due to roe deer density being above a certain threshold so that availability of tick reproduction hosts has no apparent effect on ticks' host finding and consequently may not be possible to correlate with incidence of human TBE.
Highlights
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), the most important viral tick transmitted disease in Europe and Russia is caused by tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV)
The aim of our study was to determine the roles of two species of large hosts, red deer (Cervus elaphus) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), on the incidence of TBE
A gradually rising trend was observed in both, red deer and roe deer populations (Figure 1)
Summary
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), the most important viral tick transmitted disease in Europe and Russia is caused by tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). In Slovenia around 300 cases are reported annually, with incidence around 14 per 100,000. In the last two decades, a number of new natural foci of TBE have appeared in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and other countries in Europe [1,2,3,4,5]. In most countries in Europe, TBE incidence increased sharply from 1974 to 2003 [6]. Number of cases in Sweden increased dramatically and new foci were discovered further northwards in Finland, as well as at higher altitudes [9,10,11,12]. The changes in incidence and spatial distribution occurred within a relatively short period of time throughout several countries in Europe, including Slovenia
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