Ticks are far larger spreaders of infection than previously thought.
This is shown by new research from the University of Copenhagen.
1000 ticks from Gribskov were examined, and it turned out that more than half of the adult ticks could be infected with disease.
Also read: Tick researcher: TBE is also elsewhere in the forest
But a quarter of them were carriers of at least two different zoonoses – these are diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans.
It can be, for example, Lyme disease or TBE – also called Central European encephalitis.
– That surprised me. There is a risk of being infected with two different diseases at once, says senior researcher René Bødker, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.
This is the first time that it has been investigated in Denmark how many diseases ticks carry around and which can be transmitted to humans.
According to the senior researcher, the new knowledge makes the forest tick one of the most dangerous spreaders of infection in Danish nature.
Not all of the up to 20 tick-borne infections are equally dangerous to humans.
But borrelia and TBE are some of the more serious of their kind.
Borrelia can develop paralysis and TBE can cause an inflammation of the brain.
Recently, the Statens Serum Institut reported that four people had been infected with the TBE virus over the summer.
Three of them had probably been bitten by ticks with TBE in Tisvilde Hegn in North Zealand.
The fourth was a woman from Falster who had not been to Tisvilde or Bornholm, which is the second known risk area in Denmark.
You can be vaccinated against TBE, and the Statens Serum Institut believes that it should be considered especially by people who travel a lot in nature.
Borrelia, on the other hand, cannot be vaccinated against.
Some borrelia-infected people have a mild course, others a very serious course.
According to René Bødker, a possible explanation may be that the seriously ill have in fact been infected with two tick-borne diseases at the same time: Borrelia and an infection called anaplasma.
– Anaplasma may suppress the immune system and thus help borrelia to gain a foothold.
– This may be the explanation why some people get really sick, says René Bødker.
But a quarter of them were carriers of at least two different zoonoses – these are diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans.
It can be, for example, Lyme disease or TBE – also called Central European encephalitis.
– That surprised me. There is a risk of being infected with two different diseases at once, says senior researcher René Bødker, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.
This is the first time that it has been investigated in Denmark how many diseases ticks carry around and which can be transmitted to humans.
According to the senior researcher, the new knowledge makes the forest tick one of the most dangerous spreaders in Danish nature.
Not all of the up to 20 tick-borne infections are equally dangerous to humans.
But Lyme disease and TBE are some of the more serious of their kind.
Borrelia can develop paralysis and TBE can cause an inflammation in the brain.
Recently, the Statens Serum Institut reported that four people had been infected with the TBE virus over the summer.
Three of them had probably been bitten by ticks with TBE in Tisvilde Hegn in North Zealand.
The fourth was a woman from Falster who had not been to Tisvilde or Bornholm, which is the second known risk area in Denmark.
You can be vaccinated against TBE, and the Statens Serum Institut believes that it should be considered especially by people who travel a lot in nature.
Borrelia, on the other hand, cannot be vaccinated against.
Some borrelia-infected people have a mild course, others a very serious course.
According to René Bødker, one possible explanation may be that the seriously ill have in fact been infected with two tick-borne diseases at the same time: Borrelia and an infection called anaplasma.
– Anaplasma may suppress the immune system and thus help borrelia to gain a foothold.
– This may be the explanation why some people get really sick, says René Bødker.
Source: The Nordic Page
