Simposio: Enfermedades transmitidas por garrapatas

SIMPOSIO

Enfermedades transmitidas por garrapatas (Rickettsia, Ehrlichia, Borrelia)

COORDINA: Daniela Lamattina

Garrapatas de mamíferos silvestres neotropicales: ecología y relevancia para la salud pública y veterinaria

La mayoría de los patógenos emergentes se originan en la fauna silvestre y se propagan a animales domésticos y humanos como consecuencia de diversos cambios ecológicos, demográficos y socioeconómicos. La degradación antropogénica de los ecosistemas naturales crea interfaces doméstico-silvestres, donde el riesgo de exposición a patógenos es mayor tanto para las personas como para los animales. Entre los patógenos de relevancia médica y veterinaria, cuya información sigue siendo limitada en estos entornos neotropicales, se encuentran las bacterias y los protozoos transmitidos por garrapatas. Este simposio tiene como objetivo abordar los aspectos ecoepidemiológicos de las garrapatas asociadas a mamíferos silvestres en zonas de estrecho contacto con animales domésticos y humanos, desde una perspectiva de Una Salud que integra la salud humana, animal y ambiental. El debate se centrará en los factores que influyen en la presencia, abundancia, distribución geográfica y rango de hospedadores de estos ectoparásitos, así como en su dinámica temporal y su potencial como indicadores de la salud de los ecosistemas. En un contexto de cambios socioambientales continuos, la vigilancia proporciona herramientas para evaluar los posibles riesgos epidemiológicos y diseñar estrategias de control adaptadas a estos escenarios específicos. Esta propuesta reúne a expertos en parasitología, ecología y salud pública para promover un enfoque interdisciplinario que permita comprender y gestionar los desafíos que plantean las garrapatas en la región neotropical.

Palabras clave: Ixodidae, Fauna silvestre, Enfermedades transmitidas por garrapatas, Una Salud

Ticks in Ecotones and Their Potential Implications for Wildlife, Domestic Fauna, and Humans in Central America

BERMÚDEZ, Sergio E1

1 Ectoparasite Studies Group, Department of Medical Entomology Research, Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies, Panama City, Panama.
Email address: sbermudez@gorgas.gob.pa

Ticks constitute one of the most important groups of arthropods for public health worldwide. This is due to the harm they can cause to their hosts, which can range from irritation, anemia, or allergies to toxicosis or paralysis that can lead to death. Furthermore, ticks are the most versatile vectors compared to other arthropods, since they are capable of transmitting a wide variety of viruses, bacteria, and parasites to their hosts, pathogens that can cause mild to life-threatening diseases. This interest has led to ticks being the subject of research in various Central American countries, particularly in the ecotones found between anthropogenic areas and forests. Based on a review of studies conducted in the region, the most significant findings regarding tick diversity under different environmental conditions will be presented, as well as the microorganisms most closely associated with these conditions. These results highlight the need for studies with unified methods that allow for better comparisons and thus establish risk areas for tick contact in Central America.

Keywords: Ticks, Diversity, Microorganisms, Ecotones, Central America.

Integrative Surveillance as a Tool to Mitigate the Risk of Tick-Borne Diseases Emergence

LAMATTINA, Daniela1, SEBASTIAN, Patrick S.2, URDAPILLETA, Mara1, MONTINI, Martina3, VADELL, María V.1, GAMBOA, Marcelo D.1, SALOMÓN, Oscar D.1 & NAVA, Santiago2

1 Instituto Nacional de Medicina Tropical (INMeT), Administración Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud “Dr. Carlos G. Malbrán”, Ministerio de Salud de la Nación, Puerto Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET).
2 Instituto de Investigación de la Cadena Láctea (IDICAL, INTA-CONICET), Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Rafaela, Rafaela, Santa Fe, Argentina.
3 Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL), Facultad de Ciencias Veterinaria (FCV), Esperanza, Santa Fe, Argentina.
E-mail address: daniela.lamattina@gmail.com, dlamattina@anlis.gob.ar

Rapid agricultural, livestock, and human population expansion in recent decades has led to significant changes in the environmental characteristics of ecosystems. As a result, close contact between natural and anthropized environments has intensified, leading to the formation of domestic-wildlife interface zones. The effectiveness of preventive measures against zoonotic diseases depends largely on ecological and epidemiological knowledge of pathogen-host-environment systems. In the case of tick-borne diseases, research has traditionally focused on the detection of pathogens in vectors. However, due to the difficulties of active sampling, comprehensive surveillance approaches for tick-associated pathogens that simultaneously consider vectors, domestic and wild hosts, and different levels of anthropogenic disturbance are uncommon. This presentation will address studies on tick-borne pathogens infecting mammals in different landscapes of the Atlantic forest (Paranaense and Araucaria forests) of northeastern Argentina. The research design, collection, diagnosis of samples, and evaluation of data on ticks, their hosts, and the pathogens involved will be described. These studies, which integrate environmental variables, host variables, and their association with ticks, constitute a valuable tool for analyzing the risk of diseases transmitted by these vectors. They provide essential information for identifying areas and activities of high health risk, and for designing targeted prevention and control recommendations and strategies consistent with human-animal-vector interaction patterns and anthropogenic environmental transformation processes, in line with the One Health approach.

Keywords: Ixodidae, Domestic-wildlife interface, One Health.

Tick diversity in the human- wildlife conflict context: public health and conservation consequences 

MÉNDEZ, Irena D1, MORALES, Alejandro2, MORÁN, David1 & BERMUDEZ, Sergio3. 

1 Arbovirus and Zoonosis Program, Center of Health Studies UVG. Guatemala, Guatemala.
2 Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Association. Petén, Guatemala.
3 Medical Entomology Research Department.  Conmemorative GORGAS Institute of Health Studies. Panamá, Panamá.
Email adress: irenadionemendezbarrios@gmail.com

According to IUCN, human-wildlife conflict refers to a negative interaction of wildlife with people, which can have consequences for people’s safety, well-being, and livelihoods. As the human population increases, the demand for space and resources increase as well, which puts pressure on wild areas. Because of this demand, forest areas are rapidly transformed for the establishment of human communities and agriculture zones, leading to habitat loss and fragmentation. As a result, wild animals move to the human areas adjacent to the forest remnants in search of food or shelter because of the facilities they find; in many cases these species are completely displaced after the loss of their habitat and colonize these human areas. The close interaction of wildlife with people, in addition to generating conflict situations, can lead, as part of the negative consequences, to changes in the dynamics of pathogen transmission and the emergence of diseases. In this context of changes in the landscape and human activities that derive in the wildlife-human interactions, we analyzed the diversity of ticks in northern Guatemala and the potential consequences in the emergence of diseases. In Northern Guatemala, where the greatest diversity of vertebrate fauna species associated with tropical forests is concentrated, there has been a drastic reduction in forest cover and a rapid expansion of human communities in the last 25 years. The diversity of wild ticks has been replaced by domestic animal tick species, which was the case of ticks identified in the surroundings of the Lacandon National Park. These ticks associated to domestic animals has even affected wildlife species transiting or inhabiting human areas. Likewise, wild ticks have also made inroads into human areas, as evidenced by the findings reported at the ARCAS Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Peten. The rescue center annually receives many animals derived from the rescue of animals in human areas and sometimes from conflict situations, but also seizures of trafficked animals. The thirteen tick species collected in this center have allowed us to update the list of species in wildlife but has also served as an indicator of the species that potentially meet people and domestic animals. Likewise, from these collections, we have found evidence of species associated with domestic animals affecting wildlife including a report in one howlers and coatis. In the context of the conflict, we have observed changes in tick communities that can potentially alter the dynamics of associated microorganisms, which can lead to the emergence or re-emergence of diseases in animals and people with consequences therefore affecting public health and wildlife conservation. The expansion of tick species associated with wildlife can also be considered another element of conflict with people.

Key words: tick diversity, human-wildlife conflict, tick ecology, disease risk

Risk of exposure to ticks and tick-borne diseases: ecological and behavioral aspects of the vector

SZABÓ, Matias PJ1, 

1 Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia. Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brasil.
szabo@ufu.br

Ticks are the primary vectors of diseases in domestic animals and transmit a broader range of pathogenic microorganisms than any other group of arthropod vectors. They parasitize all terrestrial vertebrates and are widely distributed across the globe. However, the nearly 1,000 known tick species vary greatly in their geographic distribution, which is more associated with environmental characteristics than with specific hosts. In their natural habitats, ticks exhibit behaviors that maximize their survival and contact with target hosts. Thus, the risk of host exposure to ticks is determined by three sequential levels of interaction: 1) hazard area, the geographic area where ticks occur, determined by environmental conditions and adequate hosts; 2) exposure, the physical contact between tick and host, driven by tick behavior aligned with host behavior; 3) parasitic interaction, the actual act of parasitism, involving trophic exchanges that support the tick’s development. Human-modified environments have favored approximately 10% of tick species, often resulting in greater abundance than in natural areas or in increased host exposure. The reasons for the expansion of these tick species and their increased contact with humans and domestic animals are varied. However, they are generally associated with the establishment of global human-shaped ecosystems. Pastures, urban parks, and households that support populations of tick species such as Rhipicephalus microplus, Amblyomma sculptum, Ixodes ricinus, and those belonging to the Rhipicephalus sanguineus complex are examples of human-modified ecosystems. Although often located on different continents, these environments may be more similar to each other than to the original ecosystems they have replaced. The proliferation of these tick species has also been favored by the increased availability of domestic, synanthropic, or ecologically unbalanced wild host populations. Understanding the biology, ecology, and behavior of these ticks, preferably in their original, natural habitats, is a crucial step toward assessing the risk of exposure to these vectors and the diseases they transmit, as well as the factors contributing to their increased abundance, host exposure, and pathogen transmission in anthropized areas. Only with this understanding will it be possible to define effective vector control measures or strategies to reduce exposure of target hosts.

Keywords: Ticks, exposure risk, anthropized areas 

Experimental assessment of ability the deer Axis axis to sustain populations of the cattle tick Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus  

TARRAGONA, Evelina Luisa1 

1Instituto de Investigación de la Cadena Láctea (IDICAL, INTA – CONICET) Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, E.E.A. Rafaela, Rafaela, Santa Fe, Argentina. CC 22, CP 2300, Rafaela, Santa Fe, Argentina.
E-mail address: tarragona.evelina@inta.gob.ar 

Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (Canestrini, 1888), is the common cattle tick and an exotic species from Asia that was introduced to the Americas along with domestic cattle by the first European settlers. R. microplus is considered the tick of greatest interest in cattle production due to the economic losses caused by parasitism per se, resistance to acaricides, or pathogenic microorganisms it transmits to cattle. Axis Deer, Axis axis (Erxleben, 1777) is an Asian species introduced to South America in the early decades of the 20th century for hunting in Uruguay and Argentina. In Argentina, these populations expanded, forming wild populations, eventually establishing themselves in protected areas where authorized hunting is currently practiced as a method of population control. These exotic deer have adapted to coexist with cattle in livestock areas ecologically suitable for R. microplus, and recently, there are reports of R. microplus parasitizing them in Argentina. However, the role of this exotic mammal as an amplifier of R. microplus is unknown. The aim of this work was to evaluate the interaction between R. microplus and exotic deer A axis that cohabit with cattle in extensive breeding systems of the Argentine littoral. For this purpose, a simulated experimental design was carried out with multiple natural infestations of A. axis with R. microplus and biological parameters were evaluated in order to determine the aptitude of the exotic deer as an amplifier of the R. microplus tick.

Keywords: The common cattle tick R. microplus, Exotic host A. axis, Argentina.

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Ixodus ricinus, imagen por Richard Bartz, CC-SA 2.5, Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ixodus_ricinus_5x.jpg) | Las imágenes de las personas miembro de los distintos comités de LA SOVE RELCOV 2025 así como las imágenes de los/as oradores/as fueron provistas por las mismas personas para uso exclusivo en esta página web. Los/as autores/as de estas imágenes se reservan el derecho de uso y reproducción de las mismas.

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Lunes 27
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