scholarly journals Focus on Common Small Animal Vector-Borne Diseases in Central and Southeastern Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-169
Author(s):  
Leschnik Michael

AbstractVector-borne diseases are one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in small animals in Europe. Many of these diseases are well-known among veterinary practitioners and some of them are called emerging diseases as prevalence, temporal and spatial distribution seem to increase in Europe. The number of newly recognized pathogens, transmitted by a variety of arthropod vectors, that are relevant for dogs and cats, is also increasing every year. The prevalence among infected vectors and hosts is a hot topic in veterinary science throughout the entire continent, as well as the development of efficient diagnostic procedures, therapy and prophylactic measures. Companion animal vector-borne diseases comprise a large group of pathogens including viruses, bacteria, protozoa and helminths. These pathogens are mainly transmitted by bloodsucking arthropods (ticks, fleas, mosquitos, sand flies), and more seldom by direct transmission between vertebrate hosts. Vector prevalence and activity is influenced by local climate conditions, host species density, changes in landscape and land use. Human parameters such as poverty and migration affect the use of prophylactic measures against pathogen transmission and infection as well as increasing the zoonotic risk to introducing pathogens by infected humans. Small animal associated factors such as pet trade and pet travel spread infection and certain vectors such as ticks and fleas. All these factors pose several complex and significant challenges for veterinarians in clinical practice to decide on efficient laboratory work-up and constructive diagnostic procedures.

Author(s):  
Patrick Mavingui ◽  
Claire Valiente Mor ◽  
Pablo Tortosa

Arthropods transmit a variety of diseases to humans and animals, including arboviruses, bacteria and parasites. No efficient treatments or control methods are available for many vector-borne diseases, especially for emerging diseases. Therefore, the development of alternative strategies aiming at controlling disease transmission is encouraged worldwide. Although transmission phenomenon is a result of complex interactions involving several actors evolving in a changing environment, the biotic relationship between pathogens and their vectors represents a key step in successful disease transmission. Recent studies highlighted a strong impact of microbiomes on the life-history traits of arthropod hosts. This chapter emphasizes those biotic interactions having an impact on adaptive traits influencing disease transmission. Evidence in behavioral alterations of vector populations/individuals with relevance to vector-pathogen transmission mitigation is reviewed. Opportunities to take advantage of such biotic processes in the control of vector-borne diseases in different epidemiological, entomological and environmental settings are explored.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 32-41
Author(s):  
Netrananda Sahu ◽  
Martand Mani Mishra

It has become evident that the global climate is changing rapidly over the past few decades. The variation and change in the global climatic factors have a notable impact on the local climate of a region. The changing climate is widely regarded as one of the most serious global health threats of the 21st century. Among various kinds of diseases, the most vulnerable to these changes are vector-borne diseases. In the Indian context, particularly Delhi city is the most vulnerable to dengue, a kind of vector-borne disease having its highest impact. We sought to identify and explore the correlation and influence of the global climatic phenomena and local climatic factors with the reported number of dengue cases in Delhi. The temporal expansions of reported dengue cases in Delhi have a variation from its first major outbreak in the city during the year 1996 to 2015. A statistical tool like Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) is used in this study to establish the interrelationship and the level of impact and local climatic variation on dengue. An exceptional negative correlation value of r = -0.82 between the monsoon index and the dengue incidences was reported during the positive years and also maintains a very high positive correlation with other global climatic indices. The study here finds that there is a strong correlation of climatic variation which further influences the epidemiology of dengue in Delhi.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-138
Author(s):  
Risqa Novita

The era of globalization allows migration fastly, so we do not have boundary of a country. This led to an increase of the infectious diseases. Indonesia also have an impact on this globalization by highly migration. Indonesia is a tropical country and has diversity of vectors that can transmit various tropical diseases. One of a vector  which transmitted vector borne diseases is a bug Triatoma. Triatoma lives near the people’s house and in the bed. One of the species of Triatoma which found in indonesia is Triatoma rubrifasciata which is vector of Chagas disease and Leprosy and can cause allergic reaction of the skin after the bite. Triatoma infection in Southeast Asia, including in Indonesia has not been widely reported. This condition should make us to be alert on the disease emerging or re emerging diseases that can be caused by Triatoma . This article aims to study Triatoma as a vector of emerging and potentially re emerging diseases in Indonesia, which are Chagas, skin allergic reaction after bite and Leprosy. Methods. Literature review by look in google scholar and pubmed, by search using keywords: emerging parasitic, vector borne diseases, Triatoma in Southeast Asia. Inclusion criterias are research articles, laboratory research, case report, and systematic surveillance. Based on the literatures, tracing data that Indonesia has a chance to be  the cases of Chagas disease, Skin allergic reaction of Triatoma and Leprosy. It is supposed to made the vigilance on  make a early warning system, so our public health coud be achieved highest.


2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 281-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.M Heffernan ◽  
R.J Smith ◽  
L.M Wahl

The basic reproductive ratio, R 0 , is defined as the expected number of secondary infections arising from a single individual during his or her entire infectious period, in a population of susceptibles. This concept is fundamental to the study of epidemiology and within-host pathogen dynamics. Most importantly, R 0 often serves as a threshold parameter that predicts whether an infection will spread. Related parameters which share this threshold behaviour, however, may or may not give the true value of R 0 . In this paper we give a brief overview of common methods of formulating R 0 and surrogate threshold parameters from deterministic, non-structured models. We also review common means of estimating R 0 from epidemiological data. Finally, we survey the recent use of R 0 in assessing emerging diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome and avian influenza, a number of recent livestock diseases, and vector-borne diseases malaria, dengue and West Nile virus.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bayissa Chala ◽  
Feyissa Hamde

Vector-borne emerging and re-emerging diseases pose considerable public health problem worldwide. Some of these diseases are emerging and/or re-emerging at increasing rates and appeared in new regions in the past two decades. Studies emphasized that the interactions among pathogens, hosts, and the environment play a key role for the emergence or re-emergence of these diseases. Furthermore, social and demographic factors such as human population growth, urbanization, globalization, trade exchange and travel and close interactions with livestock have significantly been linked with the emergence and/or re-emergence of vector-borne diseases. Other studies emphasize the ongoing evolution of pathogens, proliferation of reservoir populations, and antimicrobial drug use to be the principal exacerbating forces for emergence and re-emergence of vector-borne infectious diseases. Still other studies equivocally claim that climate change has been associated with appearance and resurgence of vector-borne infectious diseases. Despite the fact that many important emerging and re-emerging vector-borne infectious diseases are becoming better controlled, our success in stopping the many new appearing and resurging vector-borne infectious diseases that may happen in the future seems to be uncertain. Hence, this paper reviews and synthesizes the existing literature to explore global patterns of emerging and re-emerging vector-borne infections and the challenges for their control. It also attempts to give insights to the epidemiological profile of major vector-borne diseases including Zika fever, dengue, West Nile fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Chikungunya, Yellow fever, and Rift Valley fever.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katerina Kassela ◽  
Adamantia Kouvela ◽  
Michael de Courcy Williams ◽  
Konstantinos Konstantinidis ◽  
Maria Goreti Rosa Freitas ◽  
...  

AbstractIn the era of emergence and re-emergence of vector-borne diseases, a high throughput trap-based insect monitoring is essential for the identification of invasive species, study of mosquito populations and risk assessment of disease outbreaks. Insect DNA metabarcoding technology has emerged as a highly promising methodology for unbiased and large-scale surveillance. Despite significant attempts to introduce DNA metabarcoding in mosquito or other insect surveillance qualitative and quantitative metabarcoding remains a challenge. In the present study, we have developed a methodology of in-tandem identification and quantification using cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) combined with a secondary multilocus identification and quantification involving three loci of 28S ribosomal DNA. The presented methodology was able to identify individual species in pools of mosquitoes with 95.94% accuracy and resolve with high accuracy (p = 1, χ2 = 2.55) mosquito population composition providing a technology capable of revolutionizing mosquito surveillance through metabarcoding. The methodology, given the respective dataset, has the potential to be applied to various small animal populations.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mabel L. Taracena ◽  
Vanessa Bottino-Rojas ◽  
Octavio A.C. Talyuli ◽  
Ana Beatriz Walter-Nuno ◽  
José Henrique M. Oliveira ◽  
...  

AbstractAedes aegypti is the vector of some of the most important vector-borne diseases like Dengue, Chikungunya, Zika and Yellow fever, affecting millions of people worldwide. The cellular processes that follow a blood meal in the mosquito midgut are directly associated with pathogen transmission. We studied the homeostatic response of the midgut against oxidative stress, as well as bacterial and dengue virus (DENV) infections, focusing on the proliferative ability of the intestinal stem cells (ISC). Inhibition of the peritrophic matrix (PM) formation led to an increase in ROS production by the epithelial cells in response to contact with the resident microbiota, suggesting that maintenance of low levels of ROS in the intestinal lumen is key to keep ISCs division in balance. We show that dengue virus infection induces midgut cell division in both DENV susceptible (Rockefeller) and refractory (Orlando) mosquito strains. However, the susceptible strain delays the activation of the regeneration process compared with the refractory strain. Impairment of the Delta/Notch signaling, by silencing the Notch ligand Delta using RNAi, significantly increased the susceptibility of the refractory strains to DENV infection of the midgut. We propose that this cell replenishment is essential to control viral infection in the mosquito. Our study demonstrates that the intestinal epithelium of the blood fed mosquito is able to respond and defend against different challenges, including virus infection. In addition, we provide unprecedented evidence that the activation of a cellular regenerative program in the midgut is important for the determination of the mosquito vectorial competence.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
MAHNA Khan

Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) of zoonotic importance are the global threat in the human life and on animal welfare as well. Many vector-borne pathogens (VBPs) have appeared in new regions in the past two decades, while many endemic diseases have increased in incidence. Although introductions and emergence of endemic pathogens are often considered to be distinct processes, many endemic pathogens are actually spreading at a local scale coincident with habitat change. Key differences between dynamics and diseases burden result from increased pathogen transmission following habitat change, deforestation and introduction life into new regions. Local emergence of VBPs are commonly driven by changing in ecology (deforestation, massive natural calamities, civil wares etc.), altered human behavior, enhanced enzootic cycles, pathogen invasion from anthropogenic trade and travel, genomic changes of pathogens to coup up with the new hosts, vectors, and climatic conditions and adaptability in wildlife reservoirs. Once a pathogen is established, ecological factors related to vector and host characteristics can shape the evolutionary selective pressure and result in increased use of people as transmission hosts. West Nile virus (WNV), Nipah virus and Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) are among the best-understood zoonotic vector-borne pathogens (VBPs) to have emerged in the last two decades and showed just how explosive epidemics can be in new regions. Zoonotic VBPs that are likely introduced into new regions include Rift Valley Fever and Japanese Encephalitis viruses (JEV) in the Americas, Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus in Eurasia or Africa, Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever virus (CCHFV) in new parts of Eurasia. Vector-borne diseases currently impose global burden on public health and animal welfare including widespread formerly zoonotic human diseases, such as malaria, leishmania and dengue fever, as well as zoonotic diseases for which humans are dead end hosts, such as Lyme disease, WNV and CCHF. It requires highly equipped laboratory facilities and technical manpower to address emergence and re-emergence of vector-borne zoonotic diseases. Financial and technological hurdles persist in developing countries, making diagnosis and control facility difficult where these diseases are stubbornly most prevalent. Development of technological and highly knowledgeable manpower is the key to protect public health and eco-health. An awareness building about the changing risk of VBPs to prevent introduction foreign pathogens is far more difficult because this is commonly an inevitable consequence of the globalization of trade and travel and in most cases is accidental. Designing of active surveillance of the deadly infectious pathogens by combining the expertise of veterinary and human health could play pivotal roles towards reducing burden of VBPs. History suggests that successful control of VBPs requires prompt identification, swift action, mobilization of fund for developing technical expertise and occasionally by using draconian social measures.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjvm.v13i2.26614Bangl. J. Vet. Med. (2015). 13 (2): 1-14


Pathogens ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 258
Author(s):  
Lucas G. Huggins ◽  
Anson V. Koehler ◽  
Bettina Schunack ◽  
Tawin Inpankaew ◽  
Rebecca J. Traub

Bacterial canine vector-borne diseases are responsible for some of the most life-threatening conditions of dogs in the tropics and are typically poorly researched with some presenting a zoonotic risk to cohabiting people. Next-generation sequencing based methodologies have been demonstrated to accurately characterise a diverse range of vector-borne bacteria in dogs, whilst also proving to be more sensitive than conventional PCR techniques. We report two improvements to a previously developed metabarcoding tool that increased the sensitivity and diversity of vector-borne bacteria detected from canine blood. Firstly, we developed and tested a canine-specific blocking primer that prevents cross-reactivity of bacterial primer amplification on abundant canine mitochondrial sequences. Use of our blocking primer increased the number of canine vector-borne infections detected (five more Ehrlichia canis and three more Anaplasma platys infections) and increased the diversity of bacterial sequences found. Secondly, the DNA extraction kit employed can have a significant effect on the bacterial community characterised. Therefore, we compared four different DNA extraction kits finding the Qiagen DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kit to be superior for detection of blood-borne bacteria, identifying nine more A. platys, two more E. canis, one more Mycoplasma haemocanis infection and more putative bacterial pathogens than the lowest performing kit.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
María José Ruiz-López

The microbiota is increasingly recognized for its ability to influence host health and individual fitness through multiple pathways, such as nutrient synthesis, immune system development, and even behavioral processes. Most of these studies though focus on the direct effects microbiota has on its host, but they do not consider possible interactions with other individuals. However, host microbiota can change not only host behavior but also the behavior of other individuals or species toward the host. For example, microbes can have an effect on animal chemistry, influencing animal behaviors mediated by chemical communication, such as mosquito attraction. We know that host skin microbes play a major role in odor production and thus can affect the behavior of mosquitoes leading to differences in attraction to their hosts. Ultimately, the vector feeding preference of mosquitoes conditions the risk of vertebrates of coming into contact with a vector-borne pathogen, affecting its transmission, and thus epidemiology of vector-borne diseases. In this mini review, I provide an overview of the current status of research on the interaction between mosquito behavior and host skin microbiota, both in humans and other vertebrates. I consider as well the factors that influence vertebrate skin microbiota composition, such as sex, genetic makeup, and infection status, and discuss the implications for pathogen transmission.


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