Experts warn: ticks can be caught not only in the forest or in the meadow, but even in the playground near the block.
Ticks in the city
– We have already learned to check if we have caught a tick after returning from a meadow or a forest. But few people realize that a tick can also be found in a city park or in a playground. They are not uncommon there – warns Anna Grochowska, a doctoral student at the Medical University of Bialystok, who conducts research on ticks in an interview with PAP.
The common tick has a very wide host spectrum – including animal species that live in cities. – Ticks are mainly hosted by small rodents and wild game. In urban conditions, they can be, for example, hedgehogs, squirrels, birds or dogs – he says.
A tick needs at least three hosts during its life. – The circulation of pathogens through it is therefore high – he emphasizes.
What diseases do ticks transmit?
The biologist reminds that tick-borne diseases are not only Lyme disease or tick-borne encephalitis, but also babesiosis, tularemia, rickettsiosis and anaplasmosis.
- Find out more: What diseases can you catch from a tick?
As he explains, Lyme disease spirochete usually takes about 24 hours to reach the tick’s salivary glands, and then – to the host’s body. However, even in the case of the tick-borne encephalitis virus, we are exposed to infection within 30 minutes of the bite. So the sooner we remove the parasite, the better.
Anna Grochowska and her colleagues from MUB in a recent publication in Scientific Reports summarized various studies conducted over a quarter of a century (1991-2017) by scientists from all over Europe, trying to determine what percentage in cities (and in suburban areas) are ticks spreading diseases.
So what is the risk that a tick we catch in the city is infected with one of the diseases? The spreads are very wide – in Polish cities, depending on the survey, the risk ranged from 1,6 to 28,7 percent. When it comes to Europe, there are areas (for example in Hungary) where almost 50 percent were infected. studied arachnids.
Researchers from MUB also checked the relationship between the percentage of infected ticks and the climate. It turned out that a greater percentage of infected ticks occur in subtropics. Their greater percentage is also in those places with higher temperatures and higher rainfall in January, and lower – in summer. – Ticks are active there longer and the chance of becoming infected within a year is increasing – comments the researcher.
When asked if climate change in Poland could lead to a greater risk of tick-borne infections, she said that it was difficult to say because although ticks may be favored by rising temperatures, they are already harmed by winters without rain and snowfall, as well as droughts, with which recently more and more often we are dealing in Poland.
The publication concluded that 30 people are reported annually in the US. cases of Lyme disease, but the true number of cases may be as high as 300. In Europe, it is more difficult to collect accurate data on this subject, but it is estimated that it is over 65. cases per year.
The highest incidence rates of Lyme disease in Europe are recorded in Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Sweden.
As part of her doctoral dissertation, Anna Grochowska studies ticks in Białystok and Augustów. How does it look like?
– I arouse a sensation because as part of my research I walk around green areas dragging a white flannel flag stuck on a stick behind me – he laughs. She says that ticks sitting on plants attach themselves to the material – it is their way of hunting. The researcher then collects parasites from the material and examines them for diseases they transmit.
– If I’m having a ‘good day’, about 30 common ticks are caught in an hour. And there were even 50-60 of these larger meadow ticks – he says.
The doctoral student adds that when she realized how many of these ticks are in the city – she became much more careful: – I try to walk in the middle of the paths. And don’t trample the lawns.
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