Crowdsourcing-based nationwide tick collection reveals the distribution of Ixodes ricinus and I. persulcatus and associated pathogens in Finland

Abstract

A national crowdsourcing-based tick collection campaign was organized in 2015 with the objective of producing novel data on tick distribution and tick-borne pathogens in Finland. Nearly 20 000 Ixodes ticks were collected. The collected material revealed the nationwide distribution of I. persulcatus for the first time and a shift northwards in the distribution of I. ricinus in Finland. A subset of 2038 tick samples containing both species was screened for Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (the prevalence was 14.2% for I. ricinus and 19.8% for I. persulcatus), B. miyamotoi (0.2% and 0.4%, respectively) and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV; 0.2% and 3.0%, respectively). We also report new risk areas for TBEV in Finland and, for the first time, the presence of B. miyamotoi in ticks from mainland Finland. Most importantly, our study demonstrates the overwhelming power of citizen science in accomplishing a collection effort that would have been impossible with the scientific community alone.

Keywords

Borrelia burgdorferi; Borrelia miyamotoi; crowdsourcing; distribution; Ixodes persulcatus; Ixodes ricinus; tick-borne encephalitis virus; tick-borne pathogens

Published in

Emerging microbes & infections
2017, volume: 6, article number: e31
Publisher: NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP

SLU Authors

• Vesterinen, Eero

  • University of Helsinki

UKÄ Subject classification

Microbiology
Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/emi.2017.17

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/104305