Ticks are obligate haematophagous ectoparasites of wild and domestic animals as well as humans, considered to be second worldwide to mosquitoes as vectors of human diseases. Tick-borne diseases are responsible worldwide for great economic losses in terms of mortality and morbidity of livestock animals. This review concerns to the different tick and tick-parasites control methods having a major ...

BACKGROUND Progress in generating comprehensive EST libraries and genome sequencing is setting the stage for reverse genetic approaches to gene function studies in the blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis). However, proving that RNAi can work in nervous tissue has been problematic. Developing an ability to manipulate gene expression in the tick synganglia likely would accelerate understanding of...

Vacuolar (V)-ATPase is a proton-translocating enzyme that acidifies cellular compartments for various functions such as receptor-mediated endocytosis, intracellular trafficking and protein degradation. Previous studies in Dermacentor variabilis chronically infected with Rickettsia montanensis have identified V-ATPase as one of the tick-derived molecules transcribed in response to rickettsial in...

Ticks are notorious vectors of disease for humans, and many species of ticks transmit multiple pathogens, sometimes in the same tick bite. Accordingly, a broad-spectrum vaccine that targets vector ticks and pathogen transmission at the tick/host interface, rather than multiple vaccines against every possible tickborne pathogen, could become an important tool for resolving an emerging public hea...

Ticks are distributed worldwide and have an enormous medical and veterinary importance owing to the direct damage they cause to their hosts, and especially because these are vectors of a large variety of human and animal pathogens. In fact, ticks are second to mosquitoes as vectors of human pathogens and the most important vectors of pathogens affecting cattle worldwide [1-3]. Tick species can ...

Powassan virus (POWV) is a tick-borne flavivirus that can result in a severe neuroinvasive disease with 50% of survivors displaying long-term neurological sequelae. Human POWV cases have been documented in Canada, the United States, and Russia. Although the number of reported POWV human cases has increased in the past fifteen years, POWV remains one of the less studied human pathogenic flavivir...

BACKGROUND We performed a nationwide prospective study on the transmission risk for Borrelia to humans, investigating symptoms and serology at enrolment and three months after tick bites, and after standard treatment for erythema migrans (EM). Aiming to quantify the infection risk at point of care by physicians, we explored risk factors such as tick testing for Borrelia and assessment of the du...

Tick-borne fever (TBF) is stated as one of the main disease challenges in Norwegian sheep farming during the grazing season. TBF is caused by the bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum that is transmitted by the tick Ixodes ricinus. A sustainable strategy to control tick-infestation is to breed for genetically robust animals. In order to use selection to genetically improve traits we need reliable...

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 presen...

Tick-borne spirochetes include borreliae that cause Lyme disease and relapsing fever in humans. They survive in a triangle of parasitic interactions between the spirochete and its vertebrate host, the spirochete and its tick vector, and the host and the tick. Until recently, the significance of vector-host interactions in the transmission of arthropod-borne disease agents has been overlooked. H...