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Ticks are parasitic arachnids of the order Ixodida. They are part of the mite superorder Parasitiformes. Adult ticks are approximately 3 to 5 mm in length depending on age, sex, species, and "fullness". Ticks are external parasites, living by feeding on the blood of mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles and amphibians. The timing of the origin of ticks is uncertain, though the oldest known tick fossils are from the Cretaceous period, around 100 million years old. Ticks are widely distributed around the world, especially in warm, humid climates.
Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is a tick-borne disease caused by species of Borrelia bacteria, transmitted by blood-feeding ticks in the genus Ixodes. The most common sign of infection is an expanding red rash, known as erythema migrans (EM), which appears at the site of the tick bite about a week afterwards. The rash is typically neither itchy nor painful. Approximately 70–80% of infected people develop a rash. Early diagnosis can be difficult. Other early symptoms may include fever, headaches and tiredness. If untreated, symptoms may include loss of the ability to move one or both sides of the face, joint pains, severe headaches with neck stiffness or heart palpitations. Months to years later, repeated episodes of joint pain and swelling may occur. Occasionally, shooting pains or tingling in the arms and legs may develop.
Tick-borne diseases, which afflict humans and other animals, are caused by infectious agents transmitted by tick bites. They are caused by infection with a variety of pathogens, including rickettsia and other types of bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. The economic impact of tick-borne diseases is considered to be substantial in humans, and tick-borne diseases are estimated to affect ~80 % of cattle worldwide. Most of these pathogens require passage through vertebrate hosts as part of their life cycle. Tick-borne infections in humans, farm animals, and companion animals are primarily associated with wildlife animal reservoirs. Many tick-borne infections in humans involve a complex cycle between wildlife animal reservoirs and tick vectors. The survival and transmission of these tick-borne viruses are closely linked to their interactions with tick vectors and host cells. These viruses are classified into different families, including Asfarviridae, Reoviridae, Rhabdoviridae, Orthomyxoviridae, Bunyaviridae, and Flaviviridae.
Borrelia burgdorferi is a gram-negative bacterial species of the spirochete class in the genus Borrelia, and is one of the causative agents of Lyme disease in humans. Along with a few similar genospecies, some of which also cause Lyme disease, it makes up the species complex of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato. The complex currently comprises 20 accepted and 3 proposed genospecies. B. burgdorferi sensu stricto exists in North America and Eurasia and until 2016 was the only known cause of Lyme disease in North America.
The white-footed mouse is a rodent native to North America from southern Canada to the southwestern United States and Mexico. In the Maritimes, its only location is a disjunct population in southern Nova Scotia. It is also known as the woodmouse, particularly in Texas.
An emerging infectious disease (EID) is an infectious disease whose incidence has increased recently, and could increase in the near future. The minority that are capable of developing efficient transmission between humans can become major public and global concerns as potential causes of epidemics or pandemics. Their many impacts can be economic and societal, as well as clinical. EIDs have been increasing steadily since at least 1940.
Babesia, also called Nuttallia, is an apicomplexan parasite that infects red blood cells and is transmitted by ticks. Originally discovered by the Romanian bacteriologist Victor Babeș in 1888, over 100 species of Babesia have since been identified.
Ixodes scapularis is commonly known as the deer tick or black-legged tick, and in some parts of the US as the bear tick. It was also named Ixodes dammini until it was shown to be the same species in 1993. It is a hard-bodied tick found in the eastern and northern Midwest of the United States as well as in southeastern Canada. It is a vector for several diseases of animals, including humans and is known as the deer tick owing to its habit of parasitizing the white-tailed deer. It is also known to parasitize mice, lizards, migratory birds, etc. especially while the tick is in the larval or nymphal stage.
Neuroborreliosis is a disorder of the central nervous system. A neurological manifestation of Lyme disease, neuroborreliosis is caused by a systemic infection of spirochetes of the genus Borrelia. Symptoms of the disease include erythema migrans and flu-like symptoms.
Southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI) is an emerging infectious disease related to Lyme disease that occurs in southeastern and south-central United States. It is spread by tick bites and it was hypothesized that the illness was caused by the bacteria Borrelia lonestari. However, there is insufficient evidence to declare this Borrelia strain as a causative agent.
Human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA) is a tick-borne, infectious disease caused by Anaplasma phagocytophilum, an obligate intracellular bacterium that is typically transmitted to humans by ticks of the Ixodes ricinus species complex, including Ixodes scapularis and Ixodes pacificus in North America. These ticks also transmit Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases.
There is an ongoing decline in plant biodiversity, just like there is ongoing biodiversity loss for many other life forms. One of the causes for this decline is climate change. Environmental conditions play a key role in defining the function and geographic distributions of plants. Therefore, when environmental conditions change, this can result in changes to biodiversity. The effects of climate change on plant biodiversity can be predicted by using various models, for example bioclimatic models.
The effects of climate change on human health are profound, increasing the likelihood of many diseases and conditions. There is widespread agreement among researchers, health professionals and organizations that climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.
Chronic Lyme disease (CLD) is the name used by some people with non-specific symptoms, such as fatigue, muscle pain, and cognitive dysfunction to refer to their condition, even if there is no evidence that they had Lyme disease. Both the label and the belief that these people's symptoms are caused by this particular infection are generally rejected by medical professionals. Chronic Lyme disease is distinct from post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, a set of lingering symptoms which may persist after successful antibiotic treatment of infection with Lyme-causing Borrelia bacteria, and which may have similar symptoms to those associated with CLD.
Sonia M. Altizer is the Georgia Athletic Association Professor of Ecology in the University of Georgia, Odum School of Ecology.
Katherine Elizabeth Jones is a British biodiversity scientist, with a special interest in bats. She is Professor of Ecology and Biodiversity, and Director of the Biodiversity Modelling Research Group, at University College London. She is a past chair of the Bat Conservation Trust.
Biodiversity loss happens when plant or animal species disappear completely from Earth (extinction) or when there is a decrease or disappearance of species in a specific area. Biodiversity loss means that there is a reduction in biological diversity in a given area. The decrease can be temporary or permanent. It is temporary if the damage that led to the loss is reversible in time, for example through ecological restoration. If this is not possible, then the decrease is permanent. The cause of most of the biodiversity loss is, generally speaking, human activities that push the planetary boundaries too far. These activities include habitat destruction and land use intensification. Further problem areas are air and water pollution, over-exploitation, invasive species and climate change.
Disease ecology is a sub-discipline of ecology concerned with the mechanisms, patterns, and effects of host-pathogen interactions, particularly those of infectious diseases. For example, it examines how parasites spread through and influence wildlife populations and communities. By studying the flow of diseases within the natural environment, scientists seek to better understand how changes within our environment can shape how pathogens, and other diseases, travel. Therefore, diseases ecology seeks to understand the links between ecological interactions and disease evolution. New emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases are increasing at unprecedented rates which can have lasting impacts on public health, ecosystem health, and biodiversity.
Global climate change has increased the occurrence of some infectious diseases. Infectious diseases whose transmission is impacted by climate change include, for example, vector-borne diseases like dengue fever, malaria, tick-borne diseases, leishmaniasis, zika fever, chikungunya and Ebola. One mechanism contributing to increased disease transmission is that climate change is altering the geographic range and seasonality of the insects that can carry the diseases. Scientists stated a clear observation in 2022: "The occurrence of climate-related food-borne and waterborne diseases has increased ."
Felicia Keesing is an American ecologist and the David & Rosalie Rose Distinguished Chair of the Sciences, Mathematics, and Computing at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
References
- ↑ Keesing, F; Mowry, S; Bremer, W; Duerr, S; Evans, A; Fischhoff, I; Hinckley, A; Hook, S; Keating, F; Pendleton, J; Pfister, A; Teator, M; Ostfeld, RS (2022). "Effects of Tick-Control Interventions on Tick Abundance, Human Encounters with Ticks, and Incidence of Tickborne Diseases in Residential Neighborhoods, New York, USA – Volume 28, Number 5 – May 2022 – Emerging Infectious Diseases journal – CDC". Emerging Infectious Diseases. 28 (5): 957–966. doi:10.3201/eid2805.211146. PMC 9045441 . PMID 35447066.
- ↑ Levi, T; Keesing, F; Oggenfuss, K; Ostfeld, RS (April 5, 2015). "Accelerated phenology of blacklegged ticks under climate warming". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 370 (1665): 20130556. doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0556. PMC 4342961 . PMID 25688016. S2CID 9341602.
- ↑ Harvell, CD; Mitchell, CE; Ward, JR; Altizer, S; Dobson, AP; Ostfeld, RS; Samuel, MD (June 21, 2002). "Climate Warming and Disease Risks for Terrestrial and Marine Biota". Science. 296 (5576): 2158–2162. Bibcode:2002Sci...296.2158H. doi:10.1126/science.1063699. PMID 12077394. S2CID 7058296.
- ↑ Allan, BF; Keesing, F; Ostfeld, RS (February 2003). "Effect of Forest Fragmentation on Lyme Disease Risk". Conservation Biology. 17 (1): 267–272. doi:10.1046/j.1523-1739.2003.01260.x. S2CID 34910516.
- ↑ Keesing, F; Ostfeld, RS (November 2021). "Dilution effects in disease ecology". Ecology Letters. 24 (11): 2490–2505. doi:10.1111/ele.13875. PMC 9291114 . PMID 34482609. S2CID 237423713.
- ↑ Keesing, F; Ostfeld, RS (April 27, 2021). "Impacts of biodiversity and biodiversity loss on zoonotic diseases". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (17): e2023540118. Bibcode:2021PNAS..11823540K. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2023540118 . PMC 8092607 . PMID 33820825.
- ↑ Ostfeld, RS; Levi, T; Keesing, F; Oggenfuss, K; Canham, CD (July 2018). "Tick‐borne disease risk in a forest food web". Ecology. 99 (7): 1562–1573. doi:10.1002/ecy.2386. PMID 29738078. S2CID 13684579.
- ↑ Ostfeld, RS; Keesing, F (June 2000). "Pulsed resources and community dynamics of consumers in terrestrial ecosystems". Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 15 (6): 232–237. doi:10.1016/S0169-5347(00)01862-0. PMID 10802548.
- ↑ National Academy of Sciences, https://www.nasonline.org/news-and-multimedia/news/2024-nas-election.html
- ↑ American Academy of Arts and Sciences, https://www.amacad.org/person/richard-s-ostfeld
- ↑ "Merriam Award | American Society of Mammalogists". www.mammalsociety.org. November 21, 2013.
