Effect of Climate and Land Use on the Spatio-Temporal Variability of Tick-Borne Bacteria in Europe

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 15; no. 4; p. 732
• Main Authors: Rosà, Roberto, Andreo, Veronica, Tagliapietra, Valentina, Baráková, Ivana, Arnoldi, Daniele, Hauffe, Heidi Christine, Manica, Mattia, Rosso, Fausta, Blaňarová, Lucia, Bona, Martin, Derdáková, Marketa, Hamšíková, Zuzana, Kazimírová, Maria, Kraljik, Jasna, Kocianová, Elena, Mahríková, Lenka, Minichová, Lenka, Mošanský, Ladislav, Slovák, Mirko, Stanko, Michal, Špitalská, Eva, Ducheyne, Els, Neteler, Markus, Hubálek, Zdenek, Rudolf, Ivo, Venclikova, Kristyna, Silaghi, Cornelia, Overzier, Evelyn, Farkas, Robert, Földvári, Gábor, Hornok, Sándor, Takács, Nóra, Rizzoli, Annapaola
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 12.04.2018; MDPI
• Subjects: Anaplasma phagocytophilum - growth & development; Animals; Arachnids; Borrelia burgdorferi - growth & development; Climate; Climate effects; Climatic conditions; Disease; Ecological effects; Ecological monitoring; Ecological studies; Ecosystems; Environmental factors; Europe - epidemiology; Gram-Negative Bacteria - growth & development; Habitats; Hypotheses; Infections; Ixodes - microbiology; Ixodes ricinus; Land cover; Land surface temperature; Land use; Nymph; Parasitology; Pathogens; Public health; Rainfall; Relative abundance; Remote sensing; Rickettsia - growth & development; Spatio-Temporal Analysis; Tick-borne diseases; Urban agriculture; Urban areas; Vegetation; Zoology; Europe; Italy; Czech Republic; Slovakia; Hungary; Germany; Anaplasma phagocytophilum; Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato; normalized difference vegetation index; land use; density of infected nymphs; acarological hazard; Rickettsia spp
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph15040732

The incidence of tick-borne diseases caused by sensu lato, and spp. has been rising in Europe in recent decades. Early pre-assessment of acarological hazard still represents a complex challenge. The aim of this study was to model questing nymph density and its infection rate with s.l., and spp. in five European countries (Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) in various land cover types differing in use and anthropisation (agricultural, urban and natural) with climatic and environmental factors (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Land Surface Temperature (LST) and precipitation). We show that the relative abundance of questing nymphs was significantly associated with climatic conditions, such as higher values of NDVI recorded in the sampling period, while no differences were observed among land use categories. However, the density of infected nymphs (DIN) also depended on the pathogen considered and land use. These results contribute to a better understanding of the variation in acarological hazard for transmitted pathogens in Central Europe and provide the basis for more focused ecological studies aimed at assessing the effect of land use in different sites on tick-host pathogens interaction.