Ticks, as a group, are second only to mosquitoes as vectors of pathogens to humans and are the primary vector for pathogens of livestock, companion animals, and wildlife. The role of ticks in the transmission of viruses has been known for over 100 years and yet new pathogenic viruses are still being detected and known viruses are continually spreading to new geographic locations. Partly as a re...

Between August and October 2000, a cross-sectional study was conducted in smallholder dairy farms in Mbale District, Uganda to assess the prevalence of ticks and tick-borne diseases under different grazing systems and agro-ecological zones and understand the circumstances under which farmers operated. A questionnaire was administered to obtain information on dairy farm circumstances and practic...

The increasing incidence of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in Sweden and several other European countries has sparked a discussion about the need for a public vaccination strategy. However, TBE vaccination coverage is incomplete and there is little knowledge about the factors influencing vaccination behavior. Based on a survey of 1,500 randomly selected respondents in Sweden, we estimate vaccina...

Rodents might maintain tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) in nature through latent persistent infections. During 2 subsequent winters, 2008 and 2009, in Finland, we detected RNA of European and Siberian subtypes of TBEV in Microtus agrestis and Myodes glareolus voles, respectively. Persistence in rodent reservoirs may contribute to virus overwintering.

Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto is the most common tick-borne illness in the United States. Arthritis is usually a mani-festation of late dis-ease but has not been associated with cases of periprosthetic joint infections. We report on a patient who was first diagnosed with periprosthetic joint infection and subsequently Lyme arthritis.

Tick-borne encephalitis and West Nile fever are endemic flavivirus diseases in Europe. Climate change, virus evolution, and social factors may increase the risk of these flavivirus infections and may lead to the emergence of other flaviviruses in Europe that are endemic in (sub)tropical regions of the world. Control of the spread of flaviviruses is very difficult considering the cycling of flav...