West Nile virus causes sporadic cases and outbreaks of human and equine disease in Europe (western Mediterranean and southern Russia in 1962-64, Belarus and Ukraine in the 1970s and 1980s, Romania in 1996-97, Czechland in 1997, and Italy in 1998). Environmental factors, including human activities, that enhance population densities of vector mosquitoes (heavy rains followed by floods, irrigation, higher than usual temperature, or formation of ecologic niches that enable mass breeding of mosquitoes) could increase the incidence of West Nile fever.
Tick-borne diseases represent major public and animal health issues worldwide. Ixodes ricinus, primarily associated with deciduous and mixed forests, is the principal vector of causative agents of viral, bacterial, and protozoan zoonotic diseases in Europe. Recently, abundant tick populations have been observed in European urban green areas, which are of public health relevance due to the exposure of humans and domesticated animals to potentially infected ticks. In urban habitats, small and medium-sized mammals, birds, companion animals (dogs and cats), and larger mammals (roe deer and wild boar) play a role in maintenance of tick populations and as reservoirs of tick-borne pathogens. Presence of ticks infected with tick-borne encephalitis virus and high prevalence of ticks infected with Borrelia burgdorferi s.l., causing Lyme borreliosis, have been reported from urbanized areas in Europe. Emerging pathogens, including bacteria of the order Rickettsiales (Anaplasma phagocytophilum, “Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis,” Rickettsia helvetica, and R. monacensis), Borrelia miyamotoi, and protozoans (Babesia divergens, B. venatorum, and B. microti) have also been detected in urban tick populations. Understanding the ecology of ticks and their associations with hosts in a European urbanized environment is crucial to quantify parameters necessary for risk pre-assessment and identification of public health strategies for control and prevention of tick-borne diseases.
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The potential for transport and dissemination of certain pathogenic microorganisms by migratory birds is of concern. Migratory birds might be involved in dispersal of microorganisms as their biological carriers, mechanical carriers, or as carriers of infected hematophagous ectoparasites (e.g., ixodid ticks). Many species of microorganisms pathogenic to homeothermic vertebrates including humans have been associated with free-living migratory birds. Migratory birds of diverse species can play significant roles in the ecology and circulation of some arboviruses (e.g., eastern and western equine encephalomyelitis and Sindbis alphaviruses, West Nile and St. Louis encephalitis flaviviruses), influenza A virus, Newcastle disease virus, duck plague herpesvirus, Chlamydophila psittaci, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, Campylobacter jejuni, Salmonella enterica, Pasteurella multocida, Mycobacterium avium, Candida spp., and avian hematozoans. The efficiency of dispersal of pathogenic microorganisms depends on a wide variety of biotic and abiotic factors affecting the survival of the agent in, or disappearance from, a habitat or ecosystem in a new geographic area.
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