Abstract
Tick-borne diseases represent major public and animal health issues worldwide. Ixodes ricinus, primarily associated with deciduous and mixed forests, is the principal vector of causative agents of viral, bacterial, and protozoan zoonotic diseases in Europe. Recently, abundant tick populations have been observed in European urban green areas, which are of public health relevance due to the exposure of humans and domesticated animals to potentially infected ticks. In urban habitats, small and medium-sized mammals, birds, companion animals (dogs and cats), and larger mammals (roe deer and wild boar) play a role in maintenance of tick populations and as reservoirs of tick-borne pathogens. Presence of ticks infected with tick-borne encephalitis virus and high prevalence of ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi s.l., causing Lyme borreliosis, have been reported from urbanized areas in Europe. Emerging pathogens, including bacteria of the order Rickettsiales (Anaplasma phagocytophilum, “Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis,” Rickettsia helvetica, and R. monacensis), Borrelia miyamotoi, and protozoans (Babesia divergens, B. venatorum, and B. microti) have also been detected in urban tick populations. Understanding the ecology of ticks and their associations with hosts in a European urbanized environment is crucial to quantify parameters necessary for risk pre-assessment and identification of public health strategies for control and prevention of tick-borne diseases.
Highlights
Tick-borne infections are arthropod-borne diseases frequently reported worldwide
We focus on Ixodes ricinus, one of the principal vectors of pathogens causing arthropod-borne infections in Europe, its associations with hosts and pathogens and risk of infection of humans in urbanized areas
Migratory birds may play an important role in the geographic dispersal of tickborne encephalitis virus (TBEV)-infected ticks, which can contribute to the emergence of new foci of disease, including gardens and urban parks, in case abiotic conditions and the vertebrate host spectrum are favorable for the maintenance of the pathogen [158]
Summary
Tick-borne infections are arthropod-borne diseases frequently reported worldwide. Ticks are known to transmit a great variety of pathogenic agents producing the highest number of human disease cases compared to other vector-borne diseases in Europe [1, 2]. Wild boar populations have increased in Europe in recent decades and these animals are well adapted to live in urban and suburban forest areas [98] This species can provide a significant contribution to maintaining tick populations, its role of reservoir of various tick-borne pathogens is only partially known [98, 99]. Migratory birds may play an important role in the geographic dispersal of TBEV-infected ticks, which can contribute to the emergence of new foci of disease, including gardens and urban parks, in case abiotic conditions and the vertebrate host spectrum are favorable for the maintenance of the pathogen [158]. The discrepancy could be explained by a higher awareness of US physicians to the disease because in the USA it is a notifiable
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