Ticks and Tick-Borne Infections: Complex Ecology, Agents, and Host Interactions

• Published in: Veterinary sciences Vol. 5; no. 2; p. 60
• Main Author: Wikel, Stephen K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 20-06-2018; MDPI
• Subjects: Antigens; Arachnids; Arthropods; Climate change; Disease transmission; emerging and resurging pathogens; Epidemiology; Genomics; host immune defenses; immunomodulation; Infections; Influence; Parasitic diseases; Proteins; Public health; Rain; Review; Saliva; tick saliva; tick-borne diseases; tick-host-pathogen interactions; ticks; vector ecology; Vectors (Biology); Veterinary medicine; Zoonoses; immunomodulation; tick-host-pathogen interactions; vector ecology; host immune defenses; emerging and resurging pathogens; ticks; zoonoses; tick saliva; tick-borne diseases; climate change
• ISSN: 2306-7381; 2306-7381
• DOI: 10.3390/vetsci5020060

Ticks transmit the most diverse array of infectious agents of any arthropod vector. Both ticks and the microbes they transmit are recognized as significant threats to human and veterinary public health. This article examines the potential impacts of climate change on the distribution of ticks and the infections they transmit; the emergence of novel tick-borne pathogens, increasing geographic range and incidence of tick-borne infections; and advances in the characterization of tick saliva mediated modulation of host defenses and the implications of those interactions for transmission, establishment, and control of tick infestation and tick-borne infectious agents.