Author: Sarah Anne Hamer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Animals as carriers of disease
Languages : en
Pages : 570

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Book Description

Author: Agustín Estrada-Peña
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 288919406X
Category : Infectious and parasitic diseases
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Ticks are noticeable by the high diversity of pathogens they can transmit, most of them with implications in human and animal health. Ticks are arachnids, meaning that they do not share the biological and ecological features of the mosquitoes and other parasitic Diptera. The natural foci of tick-borne pathogens may be as large as a continent, or be restricted to small portions of a country, without apparently too many similar features. The life cycle of the ticks involved three developing instars. The precise relationships of ticks and their hosts, the specific seasonal pattern of activity of ticks, and the still poorly known molecular relationships between ticks and the pathogens they can transmit, make these vectors a specially fecund field of research. Importantly, extensive studies on the biological and ecological relationships of ticks and abiotic (climate and vegetation) conditions have revealed the fine-tuning of the ticks and the pathogens they transmit, together with the biological effects of host and the driving features by the climate. The studies on tick-transmitted pathogens have been on the rise in the last years. There is a growing interest in understand the somewhat complex relationships between the landscape, the climate, the vectors and the pathogens, because the concerns of spread, probably driven by subtle changes in climate and man made alterations of the landscape. Studies on Lyme borreliosis are addressing the interesting issue of the relationships between the climate, the tick activity patterns, and the selection of strains according to the reservoir availability. Furthermore, the expanding field of habitat suitability modeling has been applied with different degrees of success to evaluate and quantify the risk of disease transmission. In such exponentially growing field, revisionary books are clearly welcome additions to the bibliographical tools of researchers. It is however necessary the compilation of works devoted to explore the tip of the iceberg in the field of research. In this Research Topic, we wish to summarize and review the studies on ecology, molecular biology, and tick-host-pathogens interactions, provided to resolve the important issues of ticks and pathogens. We want not only the results obtained by newly developed molecular tools, but rigorous reviews of the most recent advances in these issues. This Topic will cover aspects of both human and animal health, with special interest on zoonoses. Aspects of the biology of the ticks, as affecting the transmission of pathogens, are of special interest in this Topic. Studies on ticks of the poorly known family Argasidae, as related to their involvement on pathogen transmission, are especially welcome. We also wish to describe the perspective of the field in the future. Finally, the presentation of ongoing original works is greatly encouraged.

Author: Daniel E. Sonenshine
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195073134
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
The ecological relationships found to exist between tick vectors and pathogens in their zootic cycle can profoundly influence patterns of transmission and disease for humans and domestic animals. This book examines the ecological parameters affecting the conservation and regulation of tick-borne zoonoses as well as the geographic and seasonal distributions of those infections. Written by an eminent authority on the subject, the book will be sought after by students and researchers in ecology, invertebrate zoology, parasitology, entomology, public health, and epidemiology.

Author: Solný Arnardóttir Adalsteinsson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781369351156
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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Book Description
Urbanization and human development are accelerating globally, rapidly changing surrounding ecosystems. Urbanization-induced changes to biotic and abiotic processes affect wildlife populations and the dynamics of associated infectious diseases. In this dissertation, I explore how features of urban forest fragments in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States impact the ecology of zoonotic tick-borne disease systems. In Chapter 1, I describe the relationship between nonnative woody plant invasion and the abundance of host-seeking nymphal blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) at two spatial scales. Within forest fragments with significant nonnative plant invasion in the understory, I. scapularis are aggregated within patches of invasive plants. At the forest fragment scale, however, invasion by nonnative plants is associated with loss of leaf litter, which reduces habitat quality for I. scapularis. Thus, at the broader, forest fragment scale, I. scapularis are found in higher abundance in forests without nonnative plant invasion. In Chapter 2, I characterize prevalence of four zoonotic tick-borne pathogens in northern Delaware, and I study the vegetation and landscape factors that determine prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, among host-seeking I. scapularis. Nonnative plant invasion and several habitat features specific to small mammal and bird host niches increase the prevalence of B. burgdorferi. In a comparison of invaded and uninvaded forest fragments, B. burgdorferi prevalence is nearly twice as high among ticks from invaded forests compared to ticks from uninvaded forests. In Chapter 3, I investigate urban forest fragment characteristics that influence the distribution and abundance of an important reservoir host for B. burgdorferi, the white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus). I also model habitat and landscape features that promote interactions between P. leucopus and immature stages of I. scapularis, and ultimately could amplify infection prevalence. In spring, landscape variables have the greatest influence on P. leucopus distributions, but in fall a combination of landscape and habitat variables explain P. leucopus abundance. Both intrinsic P. leucopus traits and extrinsic habitat features predict the tick burdens found on P. leucopus individuals in spring and summer. In Chapter 4, I focus on population vital rates in urban forest fragments of another important group of tick hosts, ground-foraging passerine birds. Specifically, I estimate cumulative survival rates of Gray Catbirds (Dumetella carolinensis) and Wood Thrushes (Hylocichla mustelina) during the post-fledging stage, and I model how behavior and anthropogenic hazards in an urban landscape affect mortality risk. Gray Catbird fledglings have approximately half the survival rate of Wood Thrushes; but for both species, mortality risk increases as individuals cross more roads and become exposed to more anthropogenic hazards. Overall, urbanization has complex, cascading effects on wildlife populations and tick-borne disease dynamics. Given the heterogeneity of urban forest fragments, both topics warrant further study with careful attention to the issue of scale.

Author: Daniel E. Sonenshine
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019974405X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 557

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Book Description
Spanning two volumes, this is the most comprehensive work on tick biology and tick-borne diseases.

Author: Pat Nuttall
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 1789249635
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 589

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Book Description
This book brings together expert opinions from scientists to consider the evidence for climate change and its impacts on ticks and tick-borne infections. It considers what is meant by 'climate change', how effective climate models are in relation to ecosystems, and provides predictions for changes in climate at global, regional and local scales relevant for ticks and tick-borne infections. It examines changes to tick distribution and the evidence that climate change is responsible. The effect of climate on the physiology and behaviour of ticks is stressed, including potentially critical impacts on the tick microbiome. Given that the notoriety of ticks derives from pathogens they transmit, the book considers whether changes in climate affect vector capacity. Ticks transmit a remarkable range of micro- and macro-parasites many of which are pathogens of humans and domesticated animals. The intimacy between a tick-borne agent and a tick vector means that any impacts of climate on a tick vector will impact tick-borne pathogens. Most obviously, such impacts will be apparent as changes in disease incidence and prevalence. The evidence that climate change is affecting diseases caused by tick-borne pathogens is considered, along with the potential to make robust predictions of future events.

Author: Peter Hudson
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 9780198506195
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
The study of epidemiology is an essential part of understanding how infectious diseases emerge, and how they affect humans, wildlife and wildlife conservation. The integration of modelling techniques with parasitology and population dynamics has been hugely significant for our understanding of disease dynamics. This book on wildlife epidemiology brings the subject right up to date, covering the most recent empirical and theoretical developments in the field.

Author: Miodrag Ristic
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401190348
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 800

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Book Description
Most of the future increase in livestock production is expected to occur in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Cattle are the most numerous of the ruminant species in the tropics and provide the largest quantity of animal food products. More than one-third of the world's cattle are found in the tropics. Disease is the major factor which prohibits full utilization of these regions for cattle production. Various infectious and transmissible viral, rick ettsial, bacterial, and particularly protozoan and helminthic diseases, are widespread in the tropics and exert a heavy toll on the existing cattle industry there. This uncontrolled disease situation also discourages investment in cattle industries by private and government sectors. In Africa alone, it is estimated that 125 million head of cattle could be accommodated in the tropical rainbelt if the disease and other animal husbandry factors could be resolved. The potential of efficient cattle production under more favorable conditions prompted various international agencies to establish a multi million dollar International Laboratory for Research in Animal Diseases (ILRAD) in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa. In South America, principal sites for raising cattle are shifting to the savannah lands because the more fertile soils are being used for crop produc tion, however, in the savannahs also, disease remains the most powerful deterrent in implementing the cattle industry.

Author: Sarah Irène Bonnet
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2889455424
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 543

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Book Description
Besides causing direct damage associated with blood feeding and in some cases through the excretion of toxins with their saliva, the main relevance of ticks lies in the wide variety of pathogens that they can transmit, including viruses, bacteria, protozoa and helminths. Owing to socioeconomic and environmental changes, tick distribution is changing with incursions of ticks and tick-borne diseases occurring in different regions of the world when the widespread deployment of chemical acaricides and repellents has led to the selection of resistance in multiple populations of ticks. New approaches that are environmentally sustainable and that provide broad protection against current and future tick-borne pathogen (TBP) are thus urgently needed. Such development, however, requires improved understanding of factors resulting in vector competence and tick-host-pathogen interactions. This Research Topic provides an overview of known molecular tick-host-pathogen interactions for a number of TBPs and highlights how this knowledge can contribute to novel control and prevention strategies for tick-borne diseases.

Author: Bill Gates
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0593534492
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Governments, businesses, and individuals around the world are thinking about what happens after the COVID-19 pandemic. Can we hope to not only ward off another COVID-like disaster but also eliminate all respiratory diseases, including the flu? Bill Gates, one of our greatest and most effective thinkers and activists, believes the answer is yes. The author of the #1 New York Times best seller How to Avoid a Climate Disaster lays out clearly and convincingly what the world should have learned from COVID-19 and what all of us can do to ward off another catastrophe like it. Relying on the shared knowledge of the world’s foremost experts and on his own experience of combating fatal diseases through the Gates Foundation, Gates first helps us understand the science of infectious diseases. Then he shows us how the nations of the world, working in conjunction with one another and with the private sector, how we can prevent a new pandemic from killing millions of people and devastating the global economy. Here is a clarion call—strong, comprehensive, and of the gravest importance.