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If the problem persists, please visit my.wpengine.com or check our status blog for updates details how Vibrant’s platform raises diagnostic sensitivity from 63% to 100% ensuring more accurate detection and faster treatment for Lyme disease and tick-borne infections A newly developed customizable multiplex protein microarray is poised to significantly improve the diagnosis of tick-borne diseases by offering faster and more accurate detection of multiple pathogens in a single test greatly surpassing traditional diagnostic methods in scope and sensitivity which typically detects a limited range of antigens with lower sensitivity Vibrant’s microarray technology can analyze IgM and IgG antibody responses across a broad spectrum of infectious agents the microarray demonstrated improved sensitivity and specificity compared to gold-standard diagnostics enabling more reliable detection of pathogens such as Borrelia burgdorferi the bacterium responsible for Lyme disease "The standard two-tier technology has a relatively low sensitivity," explained Jason Barker Clinical Lab Educator at Vibrant Wellness said in part 2part of our interview "That standard two-tier test has a 63.8% sensitivity This means if we have 100 people with Lyme disease that test is only going to find about 64 of them That leaves a lot of people in the dark." Barker emphasizes that Vibrant’s technology goes further incorporating additional mechanisms that further enhance diagnostic accuracy "One of those things is called Enhanced IgM," said Barker these are indirect tests—we're looking at how your body responds to the presence of the bacteria IgM is really important to detect because it can indicate an acute infection." the sensitivity of the test increases to 72.3% That means we can now detect about eight more cases per 100 people "That’s the whole reason we’re in this—because Lyme disease is a terrible illness Vibrant’s microarray goes beyond what traditional tests can offer The platform includes 100 different antigens on a small While the CDC’s standard two-tier testing uses a small Vibrant has expanded this selection to include additional antigens that have been under investigation in recent years The two-tier test has been in use since the 1980s and has changed very little since its inception "Vibrant has introduced more antigens that can help detect whether a person has been infected with Borrelia burgdorferi," Barker noted and those additional investigational antigens we’ve increased our test’s sensitivity to 100% That means if you have 100 people with Lyme disease It’s a pretty incredible technology." Vibrant’s microarray technology offers a more cost-effective solution "We can run a lot more samples than with standard two-tier testing The turnaround time is much quicker," Barker explained "The goal is to get people diagnosed and treated—so they don’t go untreated." This breakthrough in diagnostic technology not only addresses the frequent misdiagnosis of non-Lyme tick-borne infections which is often caused by overlapping symptoms and limited testing but also streamlines diagnostics by eliminating the need for multiple assays By detecting a broad range of pathogens simultaneously Vibrant’s platform offers significant advantages in efficiency and accuracy Meet Barker in part 1 of our interview: New Microarray Platform Aims to Improve Tick-Borne Disease Diagnosis Pneumonia Antibiotic Cures Lyme Disease at Doses 100 Times Lower Than Standard Treatment From Pathogen to Infectious Disease Diagnosis: Identifying a Novel Variant of Klebsiella Pneumoniae CDC ACIP Meeting Examines Next Steps for Meningococcal, RSV, and Chikungunya Vaccination From Pathogen to Infectious Disease Diagnosis: Taking on Potential Standard-of-Care Diagnostic Opportunities How a Prodrug Approach May Aid In Antimalarial Development Zoonotic Hookworm Infection and Cutaneous Larva Migrans 609-716-7777 wetter weather and mosquitoes begin to emerge Clemson University animal health officials are encouraging horse owners across South Carolina to vaccinate their animals against West Nile virus (WNV) and Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus “Now is the time for horse owners to vaccinate before mosquito season hits full swing,” said State Veterinarian Michael Neault director of Clemson University Livestock-Poultry Health 39 equines were tested for both EEE and WNV in South Carolina six tested positive for EEE and one for WNV While the overall number of confirmed cases was low the first detection occurred as early as Jan It highlights just how important it is to stay current with vaccinations.” have high mortality rates in unvaccinated horses — approximately 90% for EEE and 30–40% for WNV South Carolina typically reports fewer cases than neighboring states Both viruses are maintained in nature through a cycle involving the freshwater swamp mosquito commonly known as the black-tailed mosquito Symptoms of EEE typically appear two to five days after exposure and may include stumbling Or email us at news@clemson.edu Clemson News is the go-to source for stories and news about the innovations research and accomplishments of the Clemson Family Minnesotans are eager to get out and enjoy the beautiful outdoors warmer weather also ushers in pests like ticks viruses and parasites that can harm humans Jon Oliver answers questions about the outlook for this year’s tick season including how people can avoid ticks and what to do if they find one on themselves Q: Will there be a lot of ticks this year?It is always a good bet that there will be plenty of deer ticks in Minnesota in the spring and summer We see fewer ticks during years with dry weather and low humidity Wet weather in summer 2024 means that immature ticks were able to thrive Based on last year's numbers and the typical winter temperatures we experienced this year I expect we will have a fairly average year for deer ticks and that means there will be plenty of them around Warm days in April mean that adult ticks are already out and about especially when daytime temperatures exceed 60 degrees Q: What types of ticks are most common in Minnesota?Deer ticks and American dog ticks are common in Minnesota and both commonly bite people and pets Although both species can potentially transmit diseases deer ticks are more concerning because they are often infected with the bacteria that cause Lyme disease Q: Where are ticks most prevalent?Deer ticks require a refuge with a high humidity level so they are most often found in forested areas Deer ticks are now found in every forested county in the state so people should be vigilant while enjoying the outdoors Adult deer ticks are active April through June and September through November when temperatures are above freezing and there is no snow Immature ticks are considered more of a disease risk because they are smaller and harder to notice so they often remain attached and feed for longer Immature ticks are mostly active in May through July in Minnesota Q: What can people do to avoid getting ticks on themselves and what should someone do if they find one?Tick-borne diseases are more easily prevented than cured Insect repellents that contain DEET or other EPA-approved repellent chemicals are effective at repelling ticks If you spend a lot of time in tick habitats it may be worth treating a suit of clothes with permethrin a repellent/insecticide that works on ticks Tucking pants legs into your socks can help keep ticks on the outside of your clothes making them easier to spot The bacteria that cause Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases usually take hours to enter your body after a tick attaches to feed Daily tick checks will greatly reduce your chance of getting Lyme disease even if you are bitten Q: What are you doing to advance research on ticks?My research focuses on the interactions of ticks and the bacteria they carry as well as the distribution of ticks on the landscape of the Upper Midwest New pathogens are discovered relatively often in Minnesota’s deer ticks and our lab is working to find out how and where new diseases arise One exciting new project we are working on aims to bring detection tools to the field for much more rapid identification and discovery of pathogens in ticks and rodents Using an innovative mobile laboratory in the field we can use these tools to detect pathogens within hours instead of days We can also use the new tools to detect a full range of tick-borne pathogens at the same time where previous tools could only detect one pathogen at a time Testing the sensitivity and reliability of this new surveillance system will be a major focus of our summer activities this year To view the archived video you will need a user account. 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Created by The Taproot Agency A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website Share sensitive information only on official Some of the investigations above have CDC Outbreak Notices to let people know actions they can take to stay healthy CDC works closely with our federal regulatory partners For more information about how they work to identify and remove contaminated food from the market Foodborne outbreaks are sometimes caused by other germs For more information about these outbreaks Learn how CDC works with partners to investigate Please select what you would like included for printing: Copy the text below and then paste that into your favorite email application In true New Orleans fashion Rosie loved celebrating her culture by relishing in the beautiful art Kaiden and Cameron; and great great-grandchild Rosie also leaves behind a group of wonderful friends that she was so happy to have enjoyed and cherished through the years Enter your phone number above to have directions sent via text This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors A University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill modeling study suggests that wild-habitat disruption may be contributing to the increasing US prevalence of Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) a tick-borne allergy to animal meat.  The study team used a dataset of 462 AGS patients with confirmed AGS from UNC Health and models based on environmental factors to assess whether the risk of AGS is linked to the habitat fragmentation often seen in open spaces and areas of low-density development in North Carolina Their findings were published this week in PLOS Climate AGS is most often associated with the lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum) but can also be transmitted by black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis It has a particularly high incidence in the mid-Atlantic region The number of suspected cases rose from 24 in 2009 to more than 34,000 in 2019 Named after the galactose-α-1,3-galactose molecule present in most mammals AGS typically causes symptoms 2 to 6 hours after the consumption of meat or other animal products.  Symptoms can range from mild to life-threatening and may include hives or rash Most people with AGS need to refrain from eating meat such as beef The models identified open-space development and low population density as risk factors for AGS Two models predicted a strong east-to-west risk gradient across the mid-Atlantic region which largely reflects the environmental transition from mountains to coastal plains while a third model predicted a much more uneven distribution As low-intensity development has continued throughout the US while tick ranges have expanded due to climate change "These results provide evidence that AGS is associated with land uses that are associated with habitat fragmentation "This information can be used to inform future education programs aimed at reducing AGS incidence in the region." The distribution of alpha-gal cases throughout the United States doesn't perfectly align with the known distribution of lone star ticks suggesting potential environmental confounders and/or ascertainment bias But estimating incidence and geographic case distribution is complicated by limited reporting (AGS is not generally reportable at the federal level) and low healthcare provider awareness of the condition is largely driven by human behaviors that increase human-tick interactions as opposed to tick population dynamics," they wrote such as forest fragmentation and urbanization in particular "As low-intensity development has continued throughout the US while tick ranges have expanded due to climate change," they added Global Virus Network scientists highlight the need for robust surveillance and readiness for potential human-to-human viral transmission only the severe infections continued to cause symptoms.  Almost 90% of the European cases were reported in Romania The Wall Street Journal reports the Trump administration is investing $500 million in the universal vaccine project There are currently 59 herds quarantined in 4 Idaho counties The CDC today addressed what's known about treatments pushed by Kennedy urging caution about vitamin A use and citing individual decision-making by heath providers for others Yet uptake of the vaccine was extremely low—less than 4% through November 2024 Today Novavax weighed in on the FDA's latest stipulations noting that postmarketing commitments aren't unusual and are in place for many approved drugs and biologics 44% of respondents said the new leaders will make them trust their health recommendations less than they used to and Ohio notes an infection in an unvaccinated adult CIDRAP - Center for Infectious Disease Research & PolicyResearch and Innovation Office Email us © 2025 Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights Reserved.The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer Research and Innovation Office |   Contact U of M  |  Privacy Policy Newsletter subscribe An Ohio.gov website belongs to an official government organization in the State of Ohio A lock or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website and personal information are protected by federal and state digital security standards ODH staff set up traps to collect mosquitoes for surveillance The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Zoonotic Disease Program conducts statewide vector-borne disease surveillance which includes monitoring for human and veterinary cases Monitoring for diseases transmitted by mosquitoes has ended for 2024; findings for mosquito surveillance reported here are final.  Monitoring for diseases transmitted by ticks is still pending for 2024 so findings for tick surveillance reported here are preliminary For data on human cases of mosquito-borne and tickborne diseases, please visit ODH's infectious disease dashboard Mosquitoes tested from 67 agencies in 55 counties West Nile virus positive mosquito pools from 41 counties: * In addition to samples tested by the Ohio Department of Health and Licking County Health Department and test some of their samples Mosquitoes tested from 61 agencies in 51 counties pooled into 950 samples La Crosse virus positive mosquito pools from 2 counties: Mosquito-borne Diseases in Ohio La Crosse Virus West Nile Virus Zika Virus Tickborne Diseases in Ohio Lyme Disease Powassan Virus Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever CDC: Dengue Data & Statistics CDC: La Crosse Data & Maps CDC: West Nile Virus Data & Maps CDC: Tickborne Disease Surveillance Data This summary is part of the NAM’s “Communicating About Climate Change and Health” project The project aims to support health providers and other communicators in sharing actionable information with patients and the public Vector-borne diseases are spread by insects like mosquitoes and ticks Climate change is expanding the habitats and activity periods of these organisms putting more people in the United States at risk for infection The Zika virus is primarily spread by the A the same mosquito that transmits dengue and other viruses Hospitable environmental conditions for this mosquito have expanded in the United States in recent years Aegypti populations remaining active even during the winter in parts of the United States demonstrating their increasing national distribution In 2016, Florida reported an unprecedented 218 locally acquired cases of the Zika virus. Most people who contract Zika do not feel sick or experience only mild symptoms. However, Zika can cause severe pregnancy complications, including death of the fetus, and serious, long-term health problems for surviving children. Rarely, Zika can cause Guillain-Barre Syndrome Because of these risks, Florida's response to the 2016 outbreak was swift. The Florida Department of Health employed syndromic surveillance to identify and respond to Zika cases effectively This system was crucial in detecting otherwise unreported cases Containment efforts also included the use of insecticides and larvicides to manage the mosquito population responsible for spreading the virus Other public health strategies included educating the public about preventing mosquito bites and targeting mosquito control efforts in areas where infections were confirmed and Florida recorded only two locally acquired cases of Zika the next year There were significant economic and social impacts from the outbreak, including increased health care costs; productivity losses from absenteeism; expenses related to mosquito control efforts; anxiety among pregnant women; and decreased tourism. One study estimated that even a mild outbreak of Zika could cost the United States more than $183 million This example underlines the importance of preventive measures and surveillance for vector-borne diseases As is true for many climate health hazards the effects of vector-borne diseases are not felt equally across populations in the United States Homes that do not have air conditioning and use windows for cooling or are located near standing water are more likely to come in contact with disease-carrying mosquitoes Installing well-fitting window screens and using safe and effective insect repellents can help to reduce the risk of mosquito exposure Reducing any standing water around your home or neighborhood is also a good idea as it removes mosquitoes’ habitat for breeding Sources of standing water could include old tires so limiting time outdoors at night can also reduce your exposure For tick-borne diseases, people can protect themselves while outdoors by avoiding known tick habitats such as long grass, taking preventive measures like wearing long pants and long socks, and performing careful “tick checks” on children and adults after spending time outside. Learning more about the life cycle of ticks and how Lyme disease spreads can help people avoid infection Effective vector control at the city and county level is one of the best ways to mitigate risks from disease-carrying mosquitoes but jurisdictions need to work together with partners in other towns and regions as vectors do not respect jurisdictional boundaries Establishing disease surveillance and early warning systems can ensure that residents are aware of risks and take proper precautions Many health departments already use integrated case management and vector control measures to effectively combat any vector borne diseases in an area You can check with your local health department to see what their practices are DISCLAIMER: The information on this webpage is for general informational purposes only and should be not considered a substitute for professional medical advice Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition This webpage summarizes available research on the health impacts of vector-borne diseases and mitigation strategies The content was reviewed for accuracy by members of the expert committee on Communicating About Climate Change and Health The summary is intended to help inform and stimulate discussion It is not a report of the National Academy of Medicine or the National Academies of Sciences Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Copyright 2025 © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Powered by Social Driver. Copyright 2025 © National Academy of Sciences Terms of Use | Privacy Policy discusses the shifting landscape of tick-borne illnesses during Tick-borne Disease Awareness Month Tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease are on the rise across the Northeast fueled by shifting seasonal patterns and warming temperatures blacklegged ticks (commonly known as deer ticks) are staying active well beyond traditional risk windows posing an extended public health threat to people in affected areas Andrew Lover, MPH, PhD, MS, deputy director of the New England Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases says the lengthening of tick season is one of the most striking developments in recent years "The tick season is changing a lot in terms of the winters are less cold and potentially shorter so ticks are active later in the fall and earlier in the spring than they have been historically," Lover said "That really changes where people's risk perception should be Not everyone thinks about ticks at Thanksgiving time here in the Northeast This extended activity is compounded by geographic expansion Ticks are now becoming more prevalent in northern states like Vermont regions that historically saw only sparse tick populations "The ticks are also spreading north through Vermont and New Hampshire and Maine which historically had really small numbers in just a few isolated places for deer ticks "So the health systems in those three states are having to work really hard to start ramping up to deal with those health problems." Tracking tick-borne disease incidence presents its own set of challenges widespread presumptive treatment for Lyme—administering antibiotics based on symptoms or tick exposure alone—can obscure data and trends is that at least Lyme disease is so common that there's a lot of presumptive treatment," he said people just get doxycycline if they have an attached tick several promising prevention tools are in development A resurgence of interest in Lyme vaccination is underway and researchers are also testing passive immunization strategies "There’s a reinvigoration of that space to get a new or improved vaccine," said Lover "And there's also some work trying to get some monoclonal antibodies so you can get an injection at the start of the season which would really knock down the chances of Lyme disease." He emphasized the continued importance of everyday prevention methods like EPA-approved repellents and frequent tick checks but noted that broader insights into exposure patterns may help target education efforts more effectively "There’s a lot of other work trying to understand exactly where people are getting most of their exposures whether it’s around your house where you’re gardening or whether it’s during recreation," he said "That will help to help people understand when they are at their highest risk and then take appropriate action." As ticks continue to expand into new areas "Certainly the Upper Midwest has started to see more tick-borne disease in the last 20 years," Lover said "Canada is also having some new places pop up That’s just a general trend everywhere." Yet one of the most critical and overlooked gaps in the fight against tick-borne illness lies in human behavior "A lot of people know they probably should use repellent and that long pants are a good idea but it's challenging to do that every day whenever you're outside," Lover explained "So I think that's really the big gap trying to understand what types of interventions are easy to do and work with people's lives on a day-to-day basis." Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) increasingly threaten the health and well-being of people in the United States with reported cases doubling over the last two decades Yet the United States is not adequately prepared to respond to these threats Vectors—biting insects and arachnids like mosquitoes and lice—can spread germs that make people sick These diseases are major causes of death and illness worldwide More action is needed to protect people from VBDs federal entities developed The National Public Health Strategy to Prevent and Control of Vector-Borne Diseases in People (VBD National Strategy) to address the rising public health threat of VBDs The VBD National Strategy includes critical federal government activities to prevent and control VBDs Successfully implementing the VBD National Strategy depends on continued collaboration within and outside of the federal government The VBD National Strategy encourages more collaboration and innovation to reach targeted public health outcomes for the United States U.S. Health and Human Services Press Release on the VBD National Strategy (February 2024) Supporting documents for the VBD National Strategy are listed below The VBD National Strategy is the largest formal federal coordination focused on VBD prevention and control The VBD National Strategy was co-led by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services and CDC and developed in collaboration with six federal departments and the Environmental Protection Agency the Kay Hagan Tick Act was signed into law authorizing activities to prevent and control VBDs This included developing a national strategy to expand upon a framework published in September 2020 titled National Public Health Framework for the Prevention and Control of Vector-Borne Diseases in Humans The VBD National Strategy builds upon the framework Brochure: A National Public Health Framework for the Prevention and Control of Vector-Borne Diseases in Humans, 2020 Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The National Public Health Strategy to Prevent and Control Vector-Borne Diseases in People explains how standard testing can miss co-infections and how Vibrant’s microarray improves sensitivity and efficiency in a single test A newly developed multiplex protein microarray platform promises to improve the diagnosis of tick-borne diseases by allowing the detection of multiple pathogens in a single test Published in Scientific Reports in January 2025 the study highlights the effectiveness of this tool in enhancing both sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing tick-borne and other infectious diseases are the most common vector-borne diseases in the United States and Europe current diagnostic methods often fail to detect multiple pathogens at once and are prone to misdiagnosis due to overlapping symptoms and varying tick populations addresses these limitations by enabling clinicians to test for multiple pathogens in one run The platform can detect antibodies against 400 different antigens the spirochete responsible for Lyme disease In part 1 of our interview with Jason Barker he discussed the limitations of current diagnostic methods and how Vibrant’s technology offers improvements “Kind of the standard testing today we refer to as the standard two-tier testing they'll run what's called an ELISA and they're looking for one very specific protein to the bacteria that spreads Lyme disease And then if that test is what you'd call equivocal kind of looks positive and/or positive then they'll run something called a Western Blot and that methodology attempts to separate several different proteins that that bacteria can carry So we're looking for antibody binding to these antigens or the proteins from the bug.” He also pointed out the complexities of tick-borne infections “Lyme disease proper is caused by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi it's rare that if a person is bitten by a tick that they're going to be infected by just Borrelia burgdorferi They may have several other versions or different species of Borrelia.” Barker elaborated further on how Vibrant’s microarray improves diagnostic capabilities we can actually run 100 different antigens on one single little pillar We can look at all the different parts of the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria We also look at opportunistic infections like Epstein-Barr and cytomegalovirus and toxoplasmosis because all this other stuff that people may very well be infected with as well.” Barker concluded by highlighting the advantages of Vibrant’s approach: “It’s just a more efficient test and it’s a lot more sensitive than that standard two-tier technology.” Stay tuned for more details and the full interview with Barker in the next few video installments coming soon where he will discuss the broader impact of Vibrant’s technology on tick-borne disease diagnosis You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser or activate Google Chrome Frame to improve your experience Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT has developed a solar module cleaning system that uses structure-borne sound and targeted mechanical vibrations to dislodge dust Researchers will present the technology at Intersolar Europe in Munich from May 7 to 9 The Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT has developed a new approach to cleaning large PV systems by using structure-borne sound the IDMT team has been working on a process for automatically cleaning solar modules using targeted mechanical vibrations The technology uses the structure-borne sound to remove soiling such as dust or sand from the module surfaces without contact the use of water or any mechanical abrasion Any soiling on the panels is gradually removed by targeted acoustic activation of the panel and the associated vibrations Fraunhofer said the technology could be well suited to desert regions where the number of solar parks continues to rise The researchers also noted that the global market for solar module cleaning is expanding rapidly with its value projected to reach $1.85 billion by 2033 we want to address this issue and create real value for the solar industry,” said IDMT Project Manager Andreas Männchen “Our goal is to make energy generation from PV systems even more sustainable and efficient.” The researchers will show the technology at this year’s Intersolar Europe event from May 7 to 9 in Munich funded by the the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) until June 2027 a company specializing in structure-borne sound exciters More articles from Patrick Jowett Please be mindful of our community standards and website in this browser for the next time I comment By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" This website uses cookies to anonymously count visitor numbers. View our privacy policy. × The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this Close LBRF epidemics occurred frequently in Europe during the early 20th century 13 million cases occurred in the social upheaval that overtook Russia and Eastern Europe around a million cases occurred in North Africa Risk of infection in the United States is extremely unlikely if there was no travel to an endemic region LBRF causes sporadic illness and outbreaks in regions of Africa and in congregate living settings in these regions with reported mortality rates varying widely depending on social conditions recurrentis may result in a wide range of nonspecific symptoms Though the clinical symptoms of LBRF are similar to Soft Tick Relapsing Fever (STRF) LBRF is usually associated with fewer relapses Women who are pregnant are at high risk of pregnancy loss and may be at risk of more severe illness from LBRF a spiral-shaped bacteria spread from person to person by the human body louse (Pediculus humanus humanus) and Body lice become infected by feeding on infected people Transmission from louse to people typically occurs when an infected louse is crushed and the bacteria contaminate a bite wound or scratch LBRF outbreaks most commonly occur in overcrowded conditions and areas experiencing social disruption Prevent infestations of body lice to prevent LBRF and other louse-borne infections: Relapsing fever is caused by several species of Borrelia bacteria spread by ticks and body lice VBDs increasingly threaten the health and well-being of people in the United States Reported VBD cases have doubled over the last two decades the United States is not adequately prepared to respond to these threats Together, U.S. federal entities developed the National Public Health Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Vector-Borne Diseases in People to address the rising public health threat of VBDs The Strategy includes critical government activities to prevent and control VBDs CDC develops tools such as vaccines and publicly-accepted insect repellents and pest control methods CDC staff conduct vaccine research and consult on important work groups Nootkatone is an essential oil found in Alaska yellow cedar trees citrus scent and can be produced through sustainable The Environmental Protection Agency has registered this active ingredient allowing manufacturers to develop insect repellents and insecticides CDC works with health departments to monitor VBDs through a national surveillance system. ArboNET tracks VBD viruses in people CDC is always on the lookout for new vector-borne pathogens by using traditional and state-of-the-art advanced molecular detection (AMD) methods seven new tickborne pathogens have been discovered in people in the United States In 2014, a VBD microbiologist noticed something unusual in a sample from a sick person in Kansas. She suspected a new virus. Traditional and AMD methods identified Bourbon virus Researchers used AMD again to show that lone star tick can spread the virus through bites CDC responds to VBD threats by building laboratory capacity and by preparing public health agencies for potential bioterrorism events CDC supports public health labs nationwide by and international agencies can request technical assistance and disease investigation services and international agencies can improve understanding of an emerging diseases and help prevent spread of a VBD When a Zika outbreak hit the Pacific island of Yap This work provided valuable information needed when Zika came to the Western Hemisphere Some bacteria and viruses can be used deliberately to cause harm or fear. Laboratory personnel play an important role in preventing and responding to biological emergencies. Some vector-borne pathogens of concern include plague, Coxiella burnetii (Q fever), and tularemia VBD experts research these pathogens to help protect Americans CDC invests in a variety of ways to expand the nation's ability to prevent CDC's Public Health Entomology for All (PHEFA) program provides internship and fellowship opportunities. The program was created to address the lack of diversity in the field of entomology. A diverse workforce strengthens the field's ability to develop successful, community-accepted prevention and intervention efforts. Vector-borne diseases, like dengue, West Nile, and Lyme, are spread by vectors. Mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas are vectors. They can spread germs through bites. A Minnesota Department of Health epidemiologist shows samples of blacklegged ticks that are known to carry Lyme and other diseases.Tim Nelson | MPR News 2019PlayListenTicks are emerging Experts warn of rare but deadly vector-borne virus on the riseGo Deeper.CloseCreate an account or log in to save stories We have added it to a list of your favorite stories there’s a lesser-known threat these insects carry that's concerning health experts: the Powassan virus The Metropolitan Mosquito Control District spotted its first tick of the season on March 27 “We suspect they’ve been active for some time and have had numerous reports from members of the public that they've been found throughout the Twin Cities already,” the MMCD wrote online last month who supervises the Vectorborne Diseases Unit at the Minnesota Department of Health joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition with information to prevent infection and keep people safe MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all but instead of being caused by a bacterium like Lyme The virus is found most commonly in blacklegged ticks — also known as deer ticks — and can be deadly to humans “We actually discovered the first case in Minnesota back in 2008 but we’ve definitely seen an increase in cases over the last few years,” Schiffman said “I would say it’s probably the most serious of our tick-borne diseases.” Powassan hits older people and immunosuppressed individuals the hardest often will have some long-term impacts after the fact,” Schiffman added There were 14 confirmed cases of Powassan virus in Minnesota last year “We think that there are probably some cases of Powassan that are just mild or maybe even asymptomatic especially in younger people,” Schiffman said those patients may be hospitalized and get respiratory support Ticks are a common concern for people with pets who spend time outdoors Blacklegged ticks carry the most disease affecting humans MDH reports Minnesotans regularly get bitten by the American dog tick they can cause Rocky Mountain spotted fever Lone star tick bites are seldom found in Minnesota but can have severe complications Schiffman said the Powassan virus hasn’t been known to cause canine sickness Testing for Powassan isn’t as widely available as it is for other tick-borne diseases it’s possible at the Mayo Clinic and MDH’s Public Health Laboratory By the time providers reach out for a Powassan test they’ve ruled out pretty much everything else “So we’re kind of biasing toward those really more severe cases” in terms of numbers Federal funding slashes and their ripple effects could potentially affect the detection of diseases like Powassan they aren’t free and they do take resources,” Schiffman said “Stuff like this is really a priority for us at the health department that things like this could be impacted in the future.” The three stages of the blacklegged tick - an adult female a nymph and larvae - were compared to a penny at a lab at the University of Minnesota in St PaulJeffrey Thompson | MPR News 2015Now is the time of year to start thinking about these parasites and then rally for a second spike in the fall “The ticks are out enjoying the spring weather “When you’re outside in wooded and brushy areas even like pulling your socks up over your pants MDH says DEET-based repellents and EPA-regulated products containing permethrin are effective. Veterinarians can advise on a variety of tick deterrents for furry friends cleaning up brush and leaves and making a barrier between your grass and nearby woods can also help to prevent ticks If you find a tick on you or your pet, remove it as quickly as you can. MDH offers a short video on how to do so This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page One inactivated TBE vaccine (called TICOVAC and manufactured by Pfizer) is available in the United States This vaccine was approved in August 2021 for individuals aged 1 year and older This vaccine has been used for over 20 years in Europe This vaccine and other TBE vaccines are available in many countries overseas where TBE virus is present The dose for persons aged 16 years and older is 0.5mL and for children and adolescents up to 15 years of age is 0.25mL A booster dose (fourth dose) may be given at least 3 years after completion of the primary vaccination series if ongoing exposure or re-exposure to TBE virus is expected More information about TBE vaccine can be found in the Tick-borne Encephalitis Vaccine Information Statement and in the TICOVAC product information available at the FDA TICOVAC webpage travelers visiting TBE-endemic areas is very low some people who travel abroad are at increased risk for infection based on travel season Healthcare providers should advise all travelers to TBE-endemic areas to take steps to avoid tick bites TBE vaccine can further reduce the risk for infection and might be indicated for some persons at increased risk for TBE The risk-benefit assessment for vaccination should include several factors: Available data from human and animal studies and the genetic and antigenic similarity between the three subtypes of TBE virus suggest that the TBE vaccine (based on a European TBE virus) provides protection against the other main subtypes and vaccine effectiveness has not been demonstrated Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices approved recommendations for use of TBE vaccine among U.S persons who travel abroad in February 2022 Healthcare providers can use CDC's decisions tree to help determine when TBE vaccination for travelers is appropriate Click here for a downloadable PDF of the TBE vaccine decision tree Healthcare providers are encouraged to report all adverse events that might be caused by vaccination to the CDC/FDA Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS)by one of the following methods If you need further assistance with reporting to VAERS, please email info@VAERS.org or call 1-800-822-7967 This free continuing education activity for healthcare providers describes TBE vaccine recommendations for U.S Healthcare providers can use these guidelines to discuss the risks and benefits of TBE vaccination when they consult with people traveling abroad or with laboratory workers at potential risk for exposure to TBE virus Medscape Tick-Borne Encephalitis CME Activity Tick-borne encephalitis virus is primarily spread by ticks VALDOSTA — Valdosta State University’s J Donald Lee Center for Entrepreneurship will discuss big data in Health Science and Business Administration Building Room 1102 This event is open to the public.    A globally recognized leader in data science Borne’s presentation — “Convergence of Data Science and Entrepreneurship: Pioneering Innovation and Business Transformation” — will “explore how AI and data science are revolutionizing industries and sparking innovation in entrepreneurship,” said Dr assistant professor of management for VSU’s Harley Langdale Jr College of Business Administration and director of the J “His insights will provide attendees with cutting-edge knowledge on the evolving technological landscape and its implications for business strategy Borne is a highly sought-after global speaker capable of covering a wide range of topics — data mining He is known for his insights into emerging technologies Borne’s experience includes serving as the principal data scientist and the first data science fellow at Booz Allen Hamilton where he provided leadership and mentoring to multidisciplinary teams of scientists and data scientists and consulted with organizations across various sectors on using large-scale data repositories and machine learning for discovery Borne served 12 years as a professor of astrophysics and computational science at George Mason University Before that he spent nearly 20 years supporting NASA projects including serving as the data archive project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope working with NASA’s Astronomy Data Center and contributing to the Space Science Data Operations Office His expertise in large scientific databases and data mining led him to contribute to the design and development of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope where he worked on science data management He currently serves as an advisory board member at Prime AI Borne is a prominent advocate for data literacy and is a highly influential figure on social media he has consistently been ranked among the top global influencers in big data and data science Borne continues to demonstrate how data science can drive innovation across industries from helping Fortune 500 companies harness massive datasets to aiding NASA’s discovery of previously unknown galaxies and exoplanets Borne’s visit is a remarkable opportunity for students and faculty at VSU as well as our friends across South Georgia,” Park said “His talk will offer deep insights into the future of AI and data science especially in their application to entrepreneurship and business transformation this event will provide critical exposure to emerging technologies and their practical applications in the business world it presents an opportunity to incorporate leading-edge technological trends into their curriculum thereby enhancing the academic experience and preparing students for future careers in these high-demand fields The public will gain insights into how these technologies are transforming daily life and driving adaptation in a rapidly changing world.” Metrics details Microbial communities play a crucial role in supporting plant health and productivity natural plant-associated microbiomes can help disentangle microbial dynamics across time and space we generated a complex and reproducible wheat rhizosphere microbiome (RhizCom) to study successional dynamics and interactions between the soil and heritable seed-borne rhizosphere microbiomes (SbRB) in a microcosm Using 16S rRNA sequencing and genome-resolved shotgun metagenomics we find that SbRB surpassed native soil microbes as the dominant rhizosphere-associated microbiome source SbRB genomes were enriched in host-associated traits including degradation of key saccharide (niche partitioning) and cross-feeding interactions that supported partner strains (niche facilitation) In vitro co-culture experiments confirmed that helper SbRB strains facilitated the growth of partner bacteria on disaccharides as sole carbon source These results reveal the importance of seed microbiota dynamics in microbial succession and community assembly which could inform strategies for crop microbiome manipulation and approaches to manipulate it hold great promise for meeting increasing agricultural demands without resorting to harmful chemical fertilizers and pesticides allowing the selection of complex microbiomes that closely resemble the structure and composition of their original environment the widespread adoption of NatComs remains limited due to their inherent biological complexity the lack of reproducible natural microbial communities and the limitations of current technological and analytical methods independent of their availability in the surrounding soil the mechanisms by which SbRB and soil microbiomes coalesce into the plant rhizobiome and whether specific metabolic signatures drive their integration and function remain poorly investigated hindering our ability to predict or manipulate these interactions we developed a sequential wheat rhizobiome propagation approach to obtain a stable and reproducible species-rich rhizosphere natural community (RhizCom) resulting from the coalescence of two microbiome sources: the soil microbiome and heritable SbRB transmitted via seeds Plants were grown from surface-disinfected seeds in microcosms with sterilized soil matrix This allowed us to investigate the successional microbiome dynamics leading to the assembly of a reproducible wheat rhizobiome constrained by plant root selection Functional analyses revealed the enrichment of plant-interaction traits in the root-associated communities as opposed to the broader metabolic diversity observed in the soil community The specific metabolism of saccharides in SbRB demonstrates their critical role in facilitating rhizobiome assembly This work provides an unprecedented view of early rhizobiome assembly in the world’s third most productive crop facilitating the acquisition of reproducible and complex bacterial communities aimed for future mechanistic studies enumeration of bacteria on R-2A agar per gram of soil (soil wash n = 28) or rhizosphere (cycle 1 n = 20; cycle 2 n = 21; cycle 3 n = 22; cycle 4 n = 23; cycle 5 n = 15; cycle 6 n = 20; recovered n = 8; SbRB n = 16) the box spans the first to third quartiles and whiskers extend to 1.5× the interquartile range Outliers beyond this range are shown as black dots Measures of Faith’s phylogenetic diversity (g) and Shannon diversity (h) across samples The mean values are represented by bars (±s.d.) Black dots represent individual replicates (n = 4) Different letters indicate significantly different groups (P ≤ 0.01) determined using Kruskal–Wallis test followed by Fisher’s post hoc test and FDR P-value adjustment Inset plots show Spearman correlations between alpha diversity measurements and succession cycles (red line Source data Source data including genetic information processing and carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism Differentially abundant (|log2(fold change)| ≥ 2.5 and Padj < 0.01) KEGG annotations involved in metabolism between RhizCom and soil Statistical differences were calculated using two-sided Wilcoxon test The number of differentially abundant annotations is indicated Violin plots show the data distribution as a kernel density estimate Source data reflecting the dominant members of each community MAG quality based on percentage of completeness and contamination <5% contamination; good-quality MAGs: >75% completeness <10% contamination; medium-quality MAGs: >50% completeness <10% contamination; low-quality MAGs: ≤50% completeness <10% contamination; discarded MAGs: ≥10% contamination Dashed grey lines indicate the MAG quality thresholds The number and percentage of MAGs per quality category are shown in the doughnut plot Percentage of the total number of reads mapped to MAGs Unmapped and unclassified reads were not considered for calculation of percentages Taxonomic classification of high- to medium-quality MAGs and characteristics Taxonomic classification was based on the last taxonomic rank as obtained by MAG contig consensus Phylogenetic tree based on maximum-likelihood (ML) of concatenated conserved amino acid markers expanding 38,640 aligned positions and using 100 rapid bootstrap inferences followed by a thorough ML search for the best-scoring tree Seven MAGs lacking sufficient marker gene sequences for phylogenetic inference were discarded Number of annotations in fructose and mannose and starch and sucrose (d) or nicotinate/nicotinamide (e) metabolic categories Outliers beyond this range are shown as individual points Source data P value not computed due to insufficient variability between groups Outliers beyond this range are shown as individual dots Source data Saccharide utilization profiles of five isolated RhizCom members were characterized in monocultures and co-cultures. Helper SbRB strains Pantoea and Paenibacillus enabled partner strains to grow on disaccharides as sole carbon source (Extended Data Fig. 5) This metabolic specialization probably explains their early dominance in the RhizCom allowing SbRB to efficiently exploit key resources in the developing rhizosphere niche preemptively consuming simple saccharides for later arrivals limitations in obtaining reproducible natural plant-associated microbiomes challenge our ability to experimentally test microbiome manipulation strategies and gain insight into the fundamental principles governing microbial interactions and community dynamics The resulting RhizCom was resilient to cryopreservation and regrowth on wheat roots effectively maintaining a stable and reproducible rhizosphere community Representation of the processes that occur during early assembly of the wheat rhizosphere microbiome seed bacteria are the first to colonize root surfaces This early colonization leads to the depletion of readily available nutrients in the rhizosphere (niche preemption) preventing early colonization by soil-dwelling bacteria the specialized metabolism of root-exuded disaccharides by seed-borne bacteria allows them to persist when competition for primary resources from late-arriving soil bacteria increases through niche partitioning The resulting accumulation of disaccharide metabolism by-products by SbRB facilitates the colonization of the wheat rhizosphere by both soil and seed-borne bacteria the biosynthesis of the vitamins nicotinate and riboflavin by SbRB supports the establishment of auxotrophic bacteria promoting community coalescence and increasing the complexity of the rhizosphere microbiome Future work should investigate whether these processes extend to other plant species and cultivars Our work demonstrates that sequential propagation is a key strategy for achieving reproducible rhizobiomes driven by strong host-mediated effects under constrained habitat conditions Priority effects and niche facilitation through saccharide metabolism of seed-borne bacteria were key determinants for the assembly of the rhizosphere community highlighting the processes that drive primary succession during early habitat development These results contribute to our understanding of microbial community dynamics and provide valuable strategies for experimentally testing microbiome manipulation approaches aimed at improving crop productivity and health The mixture was incubated for 1 h at room temperature with shaking (180 r.p.m.) and then centrifuged at 300 × g for 1 min to pellet soil debris The supernatant was further centrifuged at 4,500 × g for 5 min The resulting pellet was washed twice with MM Serial dilutions were plated onto R-2A medium (Millipore) and incubated at 25 °C Colony-forming units (c.f.u.s) were enumerated after 48 h Three independent samples and 10 technical replicates per sample were performed resulting in an average of 1.18 × 106 ± 3.43 × 105 c.f.u.s g−1 of soil Raw data were recorded in Microsoft Excel (v.2409 Build 16.01.18025.20160) which served as a substrate for plant root and microbiome development comprised 20 g of 0.5–4 mm silt that had been sieved and autoclaved twice (120 °C which provided micronutrients and minerals from the soil environment was prepared by mixing soil with MM medium (1:1 ratio) for 1 h at 180 r.p.m. followed by centrifugation at 4,500 × g for 15 min The resulting supernatant was filtered through 0.22 µm cellulose acetate filters (Dutscher) and autoclaved twice The bacterial inoculum was either an initial soil wash containing a bacterial suspension extracted from the soil or a rhizosphere wash obtained after each re-inoculation cycle (see below) The soil wash was prepared by mixing soil with MM (1:1 ratio) for 1 h at 180 r.p.m. followed by a low-speed centrifugation at 300 × g for 1 min to remove soil debris The supernatant was then centrifuged at 4,500 × g for 15 min and the resulting pellet washed twice with MM The pellet was resuspended in soil extract and considered as the soil wash suspension containing cells from soil 2 ml was added to the 20 g of soil matrix in each glass tube a surface-disinfected pregerminated wheat seedling was placed in each tube seeds were surface disinfected in 4% NaClO for 15 min thoroughly washed with sterile distilled water and germinated on 0.85% (w/v) agar plates in the dark at 22 °C for 2 days The microcosms were incubated in a Percival PGC-7L2 plant growth chamber at 22/18 °C 16/8 h light/dark photoperiod (light intensity After 7 days of plant growth in the microcosm the plants were removed from the tubes and their roots were gently shaken to detach any loosely adhering particles of soil matrix Roots with the adhering soil matrix were cut off at the point of emergence from the seed The rhizospheres of four plants were pooled and weighed A volume of 25 ml of MM was added to each sample pool The samples were then centrifuged at 300 × g for 1 min to pellet soil matrix debris and the resulting supernatants were considered the rhizosphere wash and to prepare the re-inoculation solution The re-inoculation solution was prepared by mixing 10 ml of the rhizosphere wash of 4 replicates (total of 40 ml of rhizosphere wash) which was then centrifuged at 4,500 × g for 5 min The supernatant was discarded and the pellet was resuspended in 40 ml of soil extract This solution was used to inoculate the next cycle The microcosms were maintained in a Percival PGC-7L2 plant growth chamber at 22/18 °C 16/8 h light/dark photoperiod (160 μE m−2 s−1 light intensity) and a relative humidity of 70% for 7 days Sixteen tubes were prepared per propagation cycle the rhizosphere wash of pools of 4 plants was recovered and used for c.f.u total DNA extraction and for the re-inoculation of the next cycle aliquots of the rhizosphere wash were serially diluted in MM and plated on R-2A plates Eight technical replicates per pool of 4 plants were used for c.f.u 10 ml of the rhizosphere wash was centrifuged at 7,000 × g for 15 min to pellet bacterial cells which were cryopreserved at −20 °C until DNA extraction (see below) another 10 ml of the 4 rhizosphere washes of all 4 rhizosphere pools were combined into a single suspension which was centrifuged at 7,000 × g and the supernatant discarded The pellet was resuspended in 40 ml of soil extract and 2 ml of the suspension was inoculated per tube for the next propagation cycle A total of six propagation cycles were performed after which the final rhizosphere wash was used for c.f.u enumeration of bacteria and total DNA extraction as described above and to preserve the microbial community by storing the suspension at −80 °C in 50% (v/v) glycerol The cryopreserved wheat rhizosphere community stored at −80 °C was recovered by thawing and centrifuging two aliquots at 7,500 × g for 1 min to pellet the cells the pellet was resuspended in 40 ml of soil extract which served to inoculate 16 microcosms with wheat seedlings To recover the seed-borne rhizosphere bacteria (SbRB) community 16 microcosms were set up for a cycle (7 days) of plant growth without addition of soil inoculum pooled by 4 and processed as described above Mean TPMs per sample were used to calculate ternary coordinates per KEGG annotation with a minimum TPM threshold ≥0.5 across samples Differential abundance results were used to categorize a KEGG annotation as enriched if the KEGG annotation was significantly more abundant in a sample in all comparisons that included that sample or as suppressed if the annotation was not significantly more abundant in any of the comparisons Intermediate cases and those where the annotation was not significantly enriched in two or three comparisons were considered as balanced followed by a thorough ML search for the best-scoring tree Results were imported into R and plotted using the ggtree and ggtreeExtra R packages Seven MAGs without sufficient PhyloPhlAn marker sequences for inclusion in the phylogeny were discarded A MAG was assigned to a community if its mean TPM percentage was ≥1.5× that of the other two communities the MAG was assigned to communities where the mean TPM percentage difference was <1.5× The strains were selected from a larger RhizCom collection of isolates on the basis of growth rate and phenotypic differences that allowed their differentiation when co-cultured and grown on R-2A agar Spearman correlations were calculated using the ‘stat_cor’ function within the ggpubr R package and data were fitted to a general additive model using k = 3 with the ‘geom_smooth’ ggplot2 v.3.5.1 R function and a confidence interval of 0.95 No statistical method was used to predetermine sample size The investigators were not blinded to allocation during experiments and outcome assessment Further information on research design is available in the Nature Portfolio Reporting Summary linked to this article Genetics of phosphate solubilization and its potential applications for improving plant growth-promoting bacteria Bacteria with ACC deaminase can promote plant growth and help to feed the world Biological control of soil-borne pathogens by fluorescent pseudomonads Promise for plant pest control: root-associated pseudomonads with insecticidal activities The importance of the microbiome of the plant holobiont Harnessing the plant microbiome for sustainable crop production Crop microbiome and sustainable agriculture Biocontrol of Ralstonia solanacearum by treatment with lytic bacteriophages From microbiome composition to functional engineering Natural plant disease suppressiveness in soils extends to insect pest control Engineering rhizobacteria for sustainable agriculture Bottlenecks in commercialisation and future prospects of PGPR The unseen majority: soil microbes as drivers of plant diversity and productivity in terrestrial ecosystems Belowground biodiversity and ecosystem functioning Mapping phyllosphere microbiota interactions in planta to 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assembly of the plant microbiome Longitudinal transmission of bacterial and fungal communities from seed to seed in rice Seed-transmitted bacteria and fungi dominate juvenile plant microbiomes Seed microbiota revealed by a large-scale meta-analysis including 50 plant species in Rhizosphere Microbes: Soil and Plant Functions (eds Sharma Wheat seeds harbour bacterial endophytes with potential as plant growth promoters and biocontrol agents of Fusarium graminearum a novel endophytic bacterium with ability to improve growth and drought tolerance in wheat Bacterial seed endophyte shapes disease resistance in rice Tomato seeds preferably transmit plant beneficial endophytes Single seed microbiota: assembly and transmission from parent plant to seedling Superiority of native soil core microbiomes in supporting plant growth Successive passaging of a plant-associated microbiome reveals robust habitat and host genotype-dependent selection Growth rate is a dominant factor predicting the 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Pseudomonas ogarae F113 to the rhizosphere environment The role of root exudates in rhizosphere interactions with plants and other organisms Sucrose triggers a novel signaling cascade promoting Bacillus subtilis rhizosphere colonization Plant-driven assembly of disease-suppressive soil microbiomes Competition for iron drives phytopathogen control by natural rhizosphere microbiomes Bacterial siderophores in community and host interactions Microbiome and exudates of the root and rhizosphere of Brachypodium distachyon Evolution of the crop rhizosphere: impact of domestication on root exudates in tetraploid wheat (Triticum turgidum L.) Metabolic adaptation to vitamin auxotrophy by leaf-associated bacteria fastp: an ultra-fast all-in-one FASTQ preprocessor DADA2: high-resolution sample inference from Illumina amplicon data The SILVA ribosomal RNA gene database project: improved data processing and web-based tools phyloseq: an R package for reproducible interactive analysis and graphics of microbiome census data Differential abundance analysis for microbial marker-gene surveys Picante: R tools for integrating phylogenies and ecology Complex heatmaps reveal patterns and correlations in multidimensional genomic data Moderated estimation of fold change and dispersion for RNA-seq data with DESeq2 ggtree: an R package for visualization and annotation of phylogenetic trees with their covariates and other associated data ggtreeExtra: compact visualization of richly annotated phylogenetic data The Sequence Alignment/Map format and SAMtools Nonpareil 3: fast estimation of metagenomic coverage and sequence diversity SeqKit: a cross-platform and ultrafast toolkit for FASTA/Q file manipulation MEGAHIT: an ultra-fast single-node solution for large and complex metagenomics assembly via succinct de Bruijn graph QUAST: quality assessment tool for genome assemblies fully automatic metagenomic analysis pipeline Prodigal: prokaryotic gene recognition and translation initiation site identification functionally and phylogenetically annotated orthology resource based on 5090 organisms and 2502 viruses KEGG: Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes Sensitive protein alignments at tree-of-life scale using DIAMOND MyTaxa: an advanced taxonomic classifier for genomic and metagenomic sequences SQMtools: automated processing and visual analysis of’omics data with R and anvi’o Binning metagenomic contigs by coverage and composition MetaBAT 2: an adaptive binning algorithm for robust and efficient genome reconstruction from metagenome assemblies MaxBin 2.0: an automated binning algorithm to recover genomes from multiple metagenomic datasets Recovery of genomes from metagenomes via a dereplication CheckM: assessing the quality of microbial genomes recovered from isolates Minimum information about a single amplified genome (MISAG) and a metagenome-assembled genome (MIMAG) of bacteria and archaea Precise phylogenetic analysis of microbial isolates and genomes from metagenomes using PhyloPhlAn 3.0 PhyloPhlAn is a new method for improved phylogenetic and taxonomic placement of microbes RAxML version 8: a tool for phylogenetic analysis and post-analysis of large phylogenies Expanding the Pseudomonas diversity of the wheat rhizosphere: four novel species antagonizing fungal phytopathogens and with plant-beneficial properties 16S ribosomal DNA amplification for phylogenetic study Agricolae - ten years of an open source statistical tool for experiments in breeding a package of R functions for community ecology Garrido-Sanz, D. Assessing rhizosphere community microbiome assembly during sequential succession. Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13969371 (2024) Download references Pacheco at ETH Zurich for useful discussions and feedback on the paper; J Vacheron for valuable input during research discussions; C Switzerland) for providing us with the wheat seeds used in this study; the Lausanne Genomic Technologies Facility in Lausanne This work was supported as part of the NCCR Microbiomes a National Centre of Competence in Research funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant numbers 180575 and 225148 to C.K.) received funding from the Fondation pour l’Université de Lausanne Open access funding provided by University of Lausanne analysed the data and contributed materials/analysis tools The authors declare no competing interests Nature Microbiology thanks Ahmed Abdelfattah, Gabriele Berg and David Johnston-Monje for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations The top bulk soil from a Swiss grassland bordering a wheat field was used to obtain a soil wash containing the soil microbial suspension and a filtered and sterile soil extract to supplement the microcosm with soluble micronutrients and molecules present in the soil Both the soil wash and the soil extract were introduced into sterile microcosms consisting of glass tubes containing a soil matrix (0.5-4 mm silt) A two-day-old wheat (Triticum aestivum var After seven days of plant growth and microbiome development the rhizospheres (roots and attached soil matrix) were collected The resulting rhizosphere wash was used to reinoculate the next propagation cycle to extract total DNA for 16S rRNA amplicons and metagenome shotgun sequencing The rhizosphere wash obtained at the end of the sixth propagation cycle contained the microbial community considered as the replicable rhizosphere community (RhizCom) Seed endophytes that were able to leave the seed tissues and establish in the wheat rhizosphere in the absence of the soil wash inoculum were considered the seed-borne rhizosphere bacteria (SbRB) Combined number of forward and reverse reads obtained at each processing step in the RhizCom reads were downsampled to a maximum of 600 million reads per sample (red dashed line) to account for computational limitations Estimated sequence coverage per sample based on host-removed reads as a function of the sequencing effort Empty dots along the curves indicate the average coverage achieved per replicate Full black dots indicate coverage obtained after downsampling sample coverage after downsampling (Cov.dw) and sample sequence diversity (Divers.) are indicated Source data Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) of samples based on KEGGs TPM showing the two first axes Statistical differences between samples were assessed based on Bray-Curtis dissimilarities using ANOSIM (Analysis of Similarities) Distribution of KEGG BRITE hierarchies across samples Samples were clustered based on the complete linkage of Euclidean distances Only hierarchies with a total sum >1000 TPMs across samples were represented Source data Enriched KEGG annotations across communities based on DESeq2 differential abundance comparisons of TPMs TPMs were summed per KEGG annotation and taxonomic rank at the genus level Source data Utilization of monosaccharides and disaccharides as sole carbon source by five bacterial strains isolated from the RhizCom in monocultures (light bars) and co-cultures (dark bars) Bars represent mean normalized log10 c.f.u after 24 h of growth in M9 medium supplemented with the six saccharides and vitamins (see Methods) Error bars represent the standard deviation and dots represent single biological replicates (n = 3) Normalization was calculated by subtracting the mean c.f.u values of strains growing in M9 medium without any carbon source Missing values result from negative values obtained after normalization The ability of strains to achieve higher growth in co-cultures than in monocultures was tested for significance using the one-way Wilcoxon test with the “greater” alternative hypothesis Only significant comparisons (P < 0.05) are reported The seed-borne helper bacteria Pantoea and Paenibacillus support the growth of Acidovorax DGS4 and Pseudomonas DGS16 partners when grown with disaccharides as the sole carbon source Paenibacillus also supports the growth of Pantoea when cellobiose is the sole carbon source Source data Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-025-01973-1 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science a potentially fatal tick-borne illness that can have permanent neurological effects Though the aggressive and quickly transmissible virus is rare public health officials are urging precautions as tick season approaches but it is really rare,” said Elizabeth Schiffman a Minnesota Department of Health epidemiologist specializing in mosquito- and tick-transmitted diseases “Don't forget to do all those prevention things that we talk about that no one ever wants to do because they're boring and not fun Powassan virus is primarily transmitted to humans by one of Minnesota’s 13 tick species: the blacklegged tick An estimated 10%-15% of Powassan virus cases are fatal and around half of infected individuals sustain long-term neurological problems such as recurring headaches and memory issues There are no treatments or vaccines for Powassan and it replicates in cells that are in brain cells and so through simple destructive processes in the brain you're going to have downstream effects that result in these long-term cognitive impacts,” said Matthew Aliota professor at the University of Minnesota Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences “Powassan has the capacity to invade the central nervous system to cross the blood/brain barrier and to infect brain cells and that can have really bad long-term consequences.” Aliota received a $3.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health in 2024 to assess the potential public risk of and build a foundational understanding of Powassan focusing on Minnesota and New York — two of the country’s Powassan epicenters The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 54 human cases across 10 states in 2024 “This really has been an understudied virus to date and the number of cases have been increasing over the past “Some of this is related to better recognition by clinicians but some of it I think is just ecology as well Powassan is often compared to Lyme disease because both are spread by blacklegged ticks but Aliota says the two are “apples to oranges.” Lyme disease is significantly more common than Powassan and is not a virus Lyme disease is spread by Borrelia burgdorferi a bacteria a tick acquires when feeding on white-footed mice These comparisons have led some to believe — possibly incorrectly — that the white-footed mouse is also a reservoir for Powassan It is unknown which tick host animal harbors Powassan; some ticks are also born with the virus “People have just assumed that that mouse is the same host for Powassan as well “That's one of the questions that my lab is trying to answer.” Reasons for increasing Powassan reports may include more abundant animals for ticks to prey on: white-tailed deer have larger numbers in the state than in past decades more people may live near deer ticks than compared to a few decades ago As housing developments are built and expanded Many suburbs have wooded pockets on their edges and these forest fragments place ticks close to people “It kind of creates this ideal habitat for encounters between humans and this tick species,” Aliota said Minnesota Department of Health epidemiologists like Schiffman frequently give presentations to inform health care providers medical associations and the public about the virus “So it's about hammering home that messaging like it's more than just Lyme disease,’ ” she said and if you have a person who you can't figure out what they have we'd love to help you sort out what might be causing that person's illness.’ ” People who exhibit mild or no symptoms are less likely to seek testing the virus’ rarity may lead some doctors to overlook the possibility of Powassan Most diagnostic labs in the state are unable to screen for Powassan meaning doctors must send blood work to places like Mayo Clinic or the Minnesota Department of Health for detection “I think with the way that we capture these cases and the way we do surveillance we're kind of biased towards the more severe cases,” Schiffman said “We're probably missing some of the milder ones just as an artifact of how that testing is done.” That bias may extend to the age demographics of infected individuals More than 70% of cases reported nationally within the past two decades occurred in people age 50 or older “We also tend to see a lot of people who are older and who have those immunosuppressive conditions in our case population that we report on because they're also more likely to be the ones who get sicker,” Schiffman said So you're definitely biasing the data in that way.” Diseases spread by mosquitoes are a concern in Ohio each year.  Mosquito-borne diseases that may occur locally in Ohio include: There are also several mosquito-borne diseases that Ohioans can acquire when traveling that could be brought back into Ohio: The most effective way to prevent mosquito-borne diseases is to prevent being bitten by mosquitoes.  In Ohio mosquito-borne illnesses are most often transmitted during the warmest months Being aware of mosquito and mosquito-borne disease activity in your area allows you to take action to protect yourself and others: avoid mosquitoes and mosquito bites and stop mosquitoes from breeding in and around your home Use insect repellents when you go outdoors: Take care during peak mosquito biting hours: Check travel notices for mosquito-borne and other disease transmission updates: Speak to your healthcare provider regarding risks: Pack appropriately to protect yourself from mosquitoes: Don't let mosquitoes breed around your home: Support your community surveillance and control programs: Brochure: Fight the Bite! Prevent Mosquito-borne Diseases Poster: Prevent Mosquito Breeding Around the Home La Crosse virus West Nile virus Zika virus Mosquitoes in Ohio Vector-borne Surveillance Update Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Mosquitoes Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Having trouble finding what you are looking for? Use our A to Z Index Tick-borne diseases are transmitted to a person from the bite of an infected tick Some common ticks in Alabama are the Blacklegged (Deer) Although they are more active in the early spring and late fall months tick-borne illnesses have been reported year-round in Alabama It is vital to remain vigilant by conducting tick checks whenever you return from the outdoors look below on how to prevent and remove ticks For more information on tick-borne disease case counts, see our Data page but the most common under surveillance in Alabama include: There are other rare tick-borne diseases of public health concern reported in Alabama that include: Early symptoms of tick-borne diseases can be variable tick-borne diseases may become severe or even life-threatening if not treated untreated spotted fever rickettsiosis may lead to encephalitis and/or acute respiratory or renal failure within a week of becoming sick Untreated Lyme disease may cause arthritis as well as various neurologic and cardiac problems days to months after first becoming ill If you think you may have a tick-borne disease and test results to determine your best treatment course Most tick-borne diseases are easily treated with antibiotics; early treatment can help you avoid serious complications You can lower your risk of getting a tick-borne disease while outdoors by: To safely remove a tick attached to your skin: Ticks live in grassy Avoid wooded and brushy areas with high grass and leaf litter Walk in the center of trails to prevent contact with ticks Tick exposure can occur year-round, but ticks are most active from April to September in the United States. Use the Tick Bite Data Tracker to learn when people in different parts of the country may be at highest risk for tick bites Mosquitoes live throughout the continental United States and U.S About 12 types of mosquitoes can spread germs through bites Because you can't tell which mosquitoes could be spreading germs Everyone is at risk of being bitten by mosquitoes and ticks and getting sick from the germs they can spread Certain groups of people are at higher risk for disease than others Understand your risk of vector-borne diseases The Insect Repellent Bot will guide you through questions and answers about insect repellents and other ways to prevent tick and mosquito bites A tool to assist people in removing attached ticks and seeking health care Overseas travelers should be prepared to prevent mosquito and tick bites They can spread germs not common or not present in the continental United States Pets can get sick from germs spread by ticks. Vaccines are not available for most tickborne diseases that pets can get. Vaccines don’t keep pets from bringing ticks into your home. Protect your pets by learning how to prevent ticks on pets. Note: Cats are extremely sensitive to a variety of chemicals. Do not apply any tick prevention products to your cats without first asking your veterinarian. Erol Fikrig, MD, is hopeful an anti-tick vaccine will be available in the next five to 10 years.New research led by Yale School of Medicine (YSM) advances the goals of creating a diagnostic test and vaccines for tick-borne diseases. The study was published March 26 in Science Translational Medicine also known as the deer tick and black-legged tick is the primary vector for several tick-borne diseases Tick-borne diseases are a big and growing public health problem Lyme disease alone infects 500,000 Americans annually and warmer temperatures from climate change mean tick species are expanding beyond their traditional habitats An anti-tick vaccine based on the cement targets in this paper is promising and I'm hopeful one will be available in the next five to 10 years The current research focuses on two challenges in preventing and diagnosing tick-borne diseases, said Erol Fikrig, MD Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and professor of microbial pathogenesis at YSM Fikrig is also a professor of epidemiology (microbial diseases) at the Yale School of Public Health “We asked what targets we can recognize following a tick bite to develop tests to improve the diagnosis of tick-borne disease and if we can use the immune response to those targets to develop an anti-tick vaccine,” he said ticks emit proteins that numb the bite site and suppress an immune response Some animal species have developed tick resistance which interferes with the ticks’ feeding and makes them detach and people studying and collecting ticks who thought they had developed a similar form of resistance This evidence of developed resistance seemed to mean a vaccine could be effective and figuring out which the human immune system recognizes has been a research challenge the researchers built what they call the I scapularis rapid extracellular antigen monitoring The library is made up of yeast cells engineered to display each of the 3,000 possible I the researchers combined the yeast cells with serum from people with recent Lyme disease The antigens the human antibodies attached to could be targets for a vaccine or a tick bite test “It’s a powerful way to map the immune response to a vast number of tick proteins all at once,” said Thomas Hart a former Yale postdoctoral research fellow who led the work to create IscREAM “Previous methods could only examine a handful of known proteins at a time or relied on crude mixtures of tick proteins which left many potential targets unexplored." Serum from 33 people recognized at least one and an average of eight antigens per person Another aspect of the research confirmed what the team had heard anecdotally about human tick resistance Serum from a volunteer who had reported resistance was transferred to guinea pigs The team also vaccinated guinea pigs with an mRNA vaccine encoding 25 antigens in tick cement the substance ticks secrete to attach themselves to their hosts Vaccinated guinea pigs showed signs of tick resistance Because the immune responses from the people with Lyme disease varied more work will need to be done to determine which targets could be biomarkers for a tick bite But the mRNA vaccine results are encouraging “An anti-tick vaccine based on the cement targets in this paper is promising and I’m hopeful one will be available in the next five to 10 years,” he said The research reported in this news article was supported by the National Institutes of Health (awards R01AI126033 The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health This work was also supported by the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Emerging Pathogens Initiative and the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Internal Medicine Section of Infectious Diseases engages in comprehensive and innovative patient care, research, and educational activities for a broad range of infectious diseases. Learn more at Infectious Diseases Insects like mosquitoes carry diseases and spread them throughout populations. Malaria is one of many diseases that mosquitoes transmit, and it kills hundreds of thousands of people every year Sandra Hope in the Department of Microbiology & Molecular Biology and Dr Brian Jensen in the Department of Mechanical Engineering are seeking to curb this problem by stopping a mosquito's ability to carry malaria The project takes advantage of an edited gene that can be inserted into the insect’s DNA to remove its ability to carry the disease and their team are collaborating with the University of Utah The gene was created at the University of Utah and the insertion technique is being created at BYU Hope and Jensen have had success in the past with inserting genes into mice using electricity-mediated gene insertion but the insects provide an interesting challenge Hope and her students have to breed beetles to test the insertion techniques since beetles are more manageable test insects than mosquitoes Then they need to create a nano-injection to accommodate the insect’s small size but rather a solid needle that holds a charge attracting the DNA before releasing it into the mosquito or beetle egg The DNA includes a gene to express a red fluorescent protein to verify the DNA alteration is present Once they can prove the injection works in the beetles they hope to be able to use this technique to help mitigate the spread of other vector-borne diseases carried by insects While the project is still in early testing phases and some insects don’t survive the injection and then finding there’s going to be an even better way have enjoyed the inter-university and inter-college collaboration in designing the electrical circuit and mechanical system needed for this study “I think it's really been exciting to see how we can combine the biology and the engineering expertise,” Jensen said “It's really exciting to work with something that has not been engineered by man and unlock some of the secrets.” Several life sciences students have also been involved in this project and they have learned a variety of techniques throughout the different stages of the research process “I was in charge of giving the beetles clean habitats making sure that they had containers to breathe in and have since been working with bacteria and DNA.” Eve Nagareda (MMBIO ’26) manages the fluorescent microscope and egg dissection to ensure larvae develop properly “When you're working with DNA with all these different factors involved it's something that involves a lot of control and understanding of what could affect the experiment as a whole,” she said Hope and her colleagues remain optimistic about the potential impact of their work The success of this innovative gene-editing technique could pave the way for a world where diseases like malaria and dengue are no longer transmitted by insects College of Life SciencesLife Sciences Building (LSB)Provo Utah 84602-Dean's Suite: 801-422-1458Advisement Center: 801-422-3042 Metrics details Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is an increasing health threat in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe TBE vaccination is commonly recommended in Sweden General population surveys conducted in 2019–2022 were used to estimated TBE vaccine uptake TBE vaccine effectiveness (VE) was estimated using the screening method utilizing the surveys and public health TBE surveillance data which predominately includes hospitalized TBE cases Impact of TBE vaccination was calculated based on disease incidence and observed VE 2,015 TBE cases were reported in Sweden; 82.8% (1,564/1,890) of cases with known TBE vaccination history were unvaccinated Among persons surveyed from the general population with known vaccination history Three dose VE against TBE was 89.0% (95% confidence interval 84.3–92.4) VE was 86.0% (55.7–95.6) in 1–15 years-of-age and 93.8% (87.5–96.9) in 16–49 years-of-age despite suboptimal compliance with TBE vaccination recommendations vaccination averted an estimated thousand TBE cases enhanced efforts to increase TBE vaccine uptake and compliance to the TBE vaccination schedule are needed the number of TBE cases averted due to TBE vaccination) have not been estimated in Sweden The objectives of the present study were to estimate TBE vaccine uptake and public health impact at the national and subnational level in Sweden Incidence (per 100,000 population ≥ 1 year of age per year) of tick-borne encephalitis cases reported to the Public Health Agency of Sweden by seven geographic areas (and listing of healthcare regions in each area) in Sweden In the absence of TBE vaccination, we estimate that there would have been 3,020 TBE cases in Sweden from 2018 to 2022 (Table 5) When compared with the 2,015 observed TBE cases this suggests that TBE vaccination averted 1,005 TBE cases nationally over this period With an observed three-dose VE of 89.0% (95% CI 84.3–92.4) for the prevention of TBE cases receipt of three doses of a TBE vaccine by the entire population of Sweden would have prevented a total of 2,688 (95% CI 2,546–2,790) TBE cases during the study period there were 2,015 reported TBE cases (3.9/100,000 PPY) in Sweden predominately in the unvaccinated population although a substantial proportion of the population live in an area of high TBE incidence and TBE vaccination is recommended for persons living in or visiting a high TBE incidence area we found that 52.0% of the general population was unvaccinated These results highlight that TBE vaccine uptake in Sweden is suboptimal and suggest that low uptake is an important contributing factor to the high TBE incidence in the country Further efforts are needed to increase TBE vaccine uptake in Sweden to prevent TBE a potentially disabling and life-threatening disease by establishing a national vaccine registry which would enable VE estimation via retrospective cohort analysis and reduce the likelihood of selection and misclassification bias in our approach for estimating the number of TBE cases averted by TBE vaccination and estimating the number of TBE cases that would be averted under the counterfactual scenario where everyone was TBE vaccinated estimates on the number of TBE cases averted should be interpreted with caution our study was unable to estimate product-specific vaccine effectiveness for FSME-IMMUN® and for Encepur® approximately 69% of TBE vaccine doses sold in Sweden were FSME-IMMUN® (Pfizer September 2024) suggesting that much of the effectiveness against TBE demonstrated in this study can be attributed to FSME-IMMUN® This first published study of TBE VE in Sweden showed that TBE vaccination was effective for the prevention of TBE cases which predominately resulted in hospitalization the effectiveness of TBE vaccination in children an age group with increasing TBE disease burden Vaccination averted hundreds of TBE cases despite the relatively low TBE vaccine uptake and compliance enhanced efforts to increase TBE vaccine uptake are needed vaccine histories of TBE cases reported via the public health surveillance system to PHA were compared with the vaccine histories of survey respondents from the general population to estimate VE using the screening method The study population included all persons in Sweden ≥ 1 year-of-age; from 2018 to 2022 the average population ≥ 1 year-of-age in Sweden was 10,420,192 Results are presented nationwide and stratified into seven geographic areas: Northern Sweden (which has four healthcare regions) Southeast Sweden and the Islands (four regions) The study analyzed nationwide surveillance data on TBE cases that are routinely collected by PHA and although not immediately publicly available Available information on surveillance-reported TBE cases included TBE vaccine history but did not include hospitalization and other patient outcome information Only aggregate data with no personal identifiers were utilized therefore no ethical review committee approval was required when obtaining the data for the analysis Summary information about the surveillance-reported TBE cases from 2018 to 2022 number of doses received and date of last dose) of the cases The analysis plan for this study was internally reviewed by PHA found to be compliant with all regulatory requirements including guidelines for human subject research Initial participants were 18–65 years-of-age and provided information for all household members ≥ 1 year-of-age Surveys took 5–15 min and gathered information on age Respondents consulted vaccination cards for TBE vaccine history The 2018 unvaccinated population was estimated based on the 2019 survey data as the number of participants that reported receiving a first TBE vaccine dose in 2019 individuals with unknown vaccine history were excluded The number of TBE cases averted by vaccination from 2018 to 2022 was estimated by subtracting the number of surveillance-reported TBE cases from 2018 to 2022 (actual scenario) from the estimated TBE cases from 2018 to 2022 that would have occurred under a scenario where no one received TBE vaccination (counterfactual scenario) using the formula: TBE cases(averted) = TBE cases (counterfactual) − TBE cases (actual) The estimated number of TBE cases from 2018 to 2022 that would have occurred if no one received TBE vaccination was estimated by multiplying the Sweden population in 2018–2022 by an estimated TBE incidence in the unvaccinated population (i.e. number of TBE cases who were unvaccinated per 100,000 population who were unvaccinated per year) derived from surveillance and the population survey The number of TBE cases in 2018–2022 that would have been prevented if the entire population was TBE vaccinated was estimated as the product of the number of TBE cases in 2018–2022 in the counterfactual scenario (i.e. no one was TBE vaccinated) and the estimated TBE VE from 2018 to 2022 The data supporting this study’s findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request Lindquist, L. & Vapalahti, O. 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Epidemiol. 22, 742–746. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/22.4.742 (1993) Download references We acknowledge Anja Gilvad of Ipsos for her leadership and assistance with the population surveys and Alex Davidson of Pfizer for his assistance with the maps Global Vaccines and Anti-infectives Medical Affairs developed the study concept and were responsible for project administration developed the study methodology and formal analysis wrote the original draft of the manuscript All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript and all authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission Pfizer sponsored the study and was involved in the study design and in the decision to submit the article for publication and hold stock and stock options in Pfizer Inc Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-86968-y Exeter Health Officer Madison Bailey displays a tick remover which is being offered as part of a free kit to bring more awareness to the threat of tick-borne illnesses Exeter Health Officer Madison Bailey has been distributing 1,200 tick remover kits around town to raise awareness about ticks as the new season has arrived MARIE VESELSKY faced an uncertain future when she contracted Lyme disease nearly 20 years ago many people weren’t being diagnosed properly and fewer treatment options were available for the sometimes debilitating illness caused by bacteria transmitted through a tick bite “When I was first sick with Lyme I didn’t think I would ever get well,” she said But her condition improved following treatment and eight months later she ran the Mount Washington Road Race and has done it four times since Now the registered dietitian and her medical colleague specialize in treating Lyme patients through New Hampshire Integrated Health Care and with the snow gone and spring in full swing their offices in Dover and Conway are already seeing an uptick in patients but with the arrival of warmer weather it appears that ticks have wasted no time latching onto people and pets and prompting warnings from public health officials “A lot of people are dog walkers so they’re already picking them up and bringing them inside It seems with climate change we’re not getting that good hard freeze in the winter anymore that would kill them off so they’re surviving the winter months They’re coming back stronger and we’re seeing more of them and consequently more people are coming in,” said Forrest who took an interest in Lyme disease treatment because his wife has chronic Lyme and his 10-year-old daughter also contracted the illness According to the Tick Bite Data Tracker provided by the U.S hospital visits for tick bites in the Northeast have jumped from approximately 5 per 100,000 emergency department visits in February to more than 50 per 100,000 in April Data show that the Northeastern region continues to see the highest number of patients suffering from tick bites in the country Officials from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services said ticks can be active year-round but are most active during warmer months in New Hampshire That period typically runs from April to November with the risk for tick bites increasing as the snow melts and ticks emerge from under the leaf litter and become more active the phones at pest control companies are already ringing as homeowners try to keep the ticks lurking around their yards at bay Pesky Critters Pest Control in Raymond typically begins tick treatments for customers at the end of April or early May we want products to be able to stick to leaves and things like that because that’s where ticks may be,” said Danielle Clough who’s worked for the family business for 10 years Clough said it’s too soon to know how tough the season will be as people have just recently begun getting outside to enjoy the spring weather those in the pest business will have another busy year I can say from personal experience with my own dog,” she said Precision Pest Control in Londonderry has seen a recent increase in calls for tick treatment and technicians have been out in the field getting an early jump on the season They don’t seem to go away in the winter like they used to They seem to be lasting longer and coming back sooner,” said Steve Vargus a pest technician whose father owns the company Local health officials are urging residents to take precautions Towns like Bedford are taking steps to alert the public by placing signs regarding mosquitoes and ticks at all local trailheads According to Bedford Health Inspector Jaime Rice the town also has access to tracking and surveillance data and could issue a public health advisory if there’s important new information the public would need to know Rice noted the prevalence of tick-borne diseases locally which is reflected in CDC data showing that between 2019 and 2022 there were as many as 957 cases of Lyme disease reported in Hillsborough County alone Exeter Health Officer Madison Bailey is taking similar steps to warn residents about the dangers of ticks Signs targeting both humans and pets are posted on relevant property in town to encourage safe recreation she said her office was able to buy 1,200 tick remover kits this year which were distributed to local veterinarians “Once I know more about the tick population distribution in Exeter I will have the ability to target those areas and provide more educational outreach to those who utilize those spaces the most,” Bailey said the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services and New Hampshire Public Health acquired funding to conduct tick surveillance in 10 communities Bailey said she’ll be trained on how to perform “tick drags,” which will occur this spring to monitor nymphs or baby ticks and once in the summer to monitor adult ticks The drag will take place at a handful of recreational locations throughout Exeter to determine what the current tick population looks like and the number of ticks infected with the harmful bacteria that can cause illnesses such as Lyme disease “All of the collected ticks will be sent to the CDC labs for further testing These results will help guide the state’s and Exeter’s future initiatives,” Bailey said According to Derry Health Officer Courtney Bogaert Derry will also be providing tick collection as part of the surveillance program the town has tick prevention guidance documents available in the Derry Municipal Center lobby and on the public health page of the town’s website While there are many different tick species in New Hampshire state health officials said the most common are the American dog tick and the deer tick Deer ticks are most common toward the edge of forests particularly in areas where forests transition to different habitats American dog ticks are commonly found around trails and in areas with overgrown grass State health officials advise people to always check for ticks after being outside as early removal can reduce the risk of illness They encourage owners to check their pets as well and carefully remove ticks with tick removers or tweezers People should also monitor their health closely after a tick bite and be alert for symptoms of illness which may include a large circular rash around or near the site of the tick bite or multiple rash sites along with chills Anyone experiencing symptoms is advised to contact their health care provider to discuss testing and treatment Officials also urge people to wear insect repellents and treat clothing with permethrin; shower as soon as possible after spending time outdoors; wear protective clothing such as socks and long pants (preferably tucked into socks) outside; wear light-colored clothing to make it easier to spot ticks; and to wash clothing after being outdoors and dry clothes on high heat for 10 minutes to get rid of any ticks who never thought she would one day work with Lyme patients said people need to take the threat of Lyme disease seriously but stressed that while some may fear they’ll never recover if they become infected the disease affects people differently and many do improve “We have patients in wheelchairs and we have patients who maybe once a year get a swollen knee Automatically everyone assumes that once you have Lyme you never get rid of it and your life is miserable That is just not the case at all,” she said Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: Account processing issue - the email address may already exist Would you like to receive our daily news? Signup today Invalid password or account does not exist Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account hotter summers and changing weather patterns are bringing more than just heat Health officials say they’re also contributing to a rise in mosquito-borne illnesses across the United States mosquito-related diseases affect thousands of Americans The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports more than 2,000 cases of West Nile virus annually are also spreading beyond tropical climates and appearing in states across the country Experts say warming temperatures are creating more favorable conditions for mosquitoes that spread disease Doctors recommend several precautions to reduce the risk of infection: Parents are advised to consult the EPA website to verify the safety of insect repellents for children by age group Graham joined the News 9 team in February of 2025 He is dedicated to sharing the diverse stories that have shaped his country and his community and general news updates from News 9 delivered right to your inbox The surging electronic producer discusses his musical hot takes perspectives on AI and more in an embracive EDM.com interview "I notice that people crank out a few songs and then immediately go to the marketing or pushing it on on TikTok," borne tells EDM.com "I think people forget that the most important part is the music and creating a story." The 22-year-old breakout's hot take on music production Today's artists need to "let the music speak for itself." "There's a lot of 'dopamine hit' content which gets people interested for a certain amount of time but then they lose the engagement," he explains "Trying to create a story and focus on the production itself is the most important part." With so much content constantly bidding for attention in an endless stream of ads and memes today's listeners struggle to focus for more than a few seconds So he felt it was paramount to call his music pseudonym something classic and timeless ultimately turning to his own last name to derive his pseudonym "I was trying to find something that I wouldn’t regret in five years," he says with a laugh full-circle moment wash over him in May, when he was featured in a mix by the deeply influential UKF brand UKF's releases framed his approach to electronic music through the lens of timeless tunes from dubstep luminaries like Zeds Dead Being featured in a mix alongside the iconic duo made it even more meaningful 140 BPM dubstep heater "Control" via UKF in September The artist's exposure to electronic music in his early teens "turned on the curiosity factor," inspiring him to play with Virtual DJ and ultimately buy his first controller he started experimenting with music production around age 14 borne attended the city's beloved ÎleSoniq Music Festival but had never went to any other major fests until Shambhala last summer That event also happened to be where he played his debut DJ set He says he was initially drawn to rave culture because it sets the stage for a full spectrum of unlimited self-expression and creativity He also felt inspired by the level of teamwork involved in taking the overall vision of an event from an idea to reality an array of factors have to meet at a creative collision point When analyzing festival culture and the overall spirit of dance music borne said he's enthralled by the "family tree" of influences that stem from industry pioneers who paved the way for EDM and its subgenres creating a textured web of innovation and interconnectedness Those layers of innovation and inspiration ultimately led him to heavily experiment with his style and sound in the past eight years the EP celebrates vulnerability and imperfection through five dark including a collaboration with dubstep icon Flux Pavilion I used to just stack stuff and have a bunch of layers because it made it feel bigger and louder I learned that less is more," he explains laughing about the "chaotic" start to his discography and I think that’s important for every producer to do," he adds "Dip your toes into everything and then see what you really enjoy doing." borne describes his signature sound as "minimal" and "bass-oriented." His goal is to infuse every arrangement with a heavy dose of intention from the bass to the percussion and everything in between "I've been getting more into 140 which is one of [PEEKABOO's] specialties It's always nice working with like-minded producers," he said about producing the hotly anticipated ID. "It was like let's just make whatever and make it natural I was also really grateful he brought me to be a part of the Denver show at Mission Ballroom For him to bring me out for that and share love and support When peering into his metaphorical crystal ball borne embraces change for the music industry He said he can imagine certain AI applications benefitting young "It would be cool to use AI for project breakdowns like showing how a song was made or how the individual sounds were made If tech like that was a tool when I was younger and trying to learn it would have been extremely beneficial because you’d learn faster as opposed to just figuring out yourself." of the nefarious aspects of generative AI in the music production world "The whole point of music is the humanized effect," he explains "You see how many different options and sounds there are because it’s through our ears and it's very personalized If someone goes about making music through AI it's going to be algorithmic and you can see exactly what's going to happen The possibilities aren't as endless in that sense I do feel like people will recognize the humanized songs Leaving aspiring producers with one last piece of advice borne says it's crucial to "take lessons out of failed attempts." "I'm a firm believer that the music speaks for itself," he says the whole process you went through to make that song has probably taught you a lot It doesn't always have to be about like the end result Try to create a story for people to follow alongside the music." whose rock- and punk-influenced sound is challenging conventions in today's male-dominated electronic music industry who has traded the runway for the rave by singing on a house track produced by Tiësto "Pressure," and the adversity that comes with navigating the music industry as a pregnant woman who today released the dreamy conclusion to his debut album "Things I Wish I Could Forget" featuring Vancouver Sleep Clinic whose performance sparked an unexpectedly timeless mashup of EDM and "Schitt's Creek" charm who says Bonnaroo's new Infinity Stage "makes you feel like you are in the experience Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral disease caused by the chikungunya virus (CHIKV) an RNA virus in the alphavirus genus of the family Togaviridae The name chikungunya derives from a word in the Kimakonde language of southern Tanzania meaning “that which bends up” and describes the contorted posture of infected people with severe joint pain CHIKV was first identified in the United Republic of Tanzania in 1952 and subsequently in other countries Africa and Asia (1) Urban outbreaks were first recorded in Thailand in 1967 and in India in the 1970s (2) outbreaks of CHIKV have become more frequent and widespread caused partly due to viral adaptations allowing the virus to be spread more easily by Aedes albopictus mosquitoes and because CHIKV has been introduced into immunologically naïve populations CHIKV has now been identified in >110 countries in Asia Europe and the Americas. Transmission has been interrupted for several years on islands where a high proportion of the population is infected and then immune; however transmission often persists in countries where large parts of the population have not yet been infected All regions with established populations of Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus mosquitoes have now experienced local mosquito-borne transmission Chikungunya virus is transmitted by infected female mosquitoes most commonly Aedes  aegypti and Aedes  albopictus which can also transmit dengue and Zika viruses These mosquitoes bite primarily during daylight hours and Aedes aegypti feeds both indoors and outdoors They lay eggs in containers with standing water When an uninfected mosquito feeds on a person who has CHIKV circulating in their blood The virus then replicates in the mosquito over several days and can be transmitted into a new human host when the mosquito bites them The virus again begins to replicate in this newly infected person and reaches high concentrations in their blood at which point they can further infect other mosquitoes and perpetuate the transmission cycle CHIKV disease onset is typically 4–8 days (range 2–12 days) after the bite of an infected mosquito It is characterized by an abrupt onset of fever frequently accompanied by severe joint pain The joint pain is often debilitating and usually lasts for a few days but may be prolonged Other common signs and symptoms include joint swelling fatigue and rash. Since these symptoms overlap with other infections including those with dengue and Zika viruses symptoms in infected individuals are usually mild and the infection may go unrecognized Most patients recover fully from the infection; however and neurological complications have been reported with CHIKV infections Patients at extremes of the age spectrum are at higher risk for severe disease including newborns infected during delivery to infected mothers or bitten by infected mosquitoes in the weeks after birth and older people with underlying medical conditions Patients with severe disease require hospitalization because of the risk of organ damage and death available evidence suggests they are likely to be immune from future chikungunya infections (4) Chikungunya virus may be detected directly in blood samples collected during the first week of illness using tests such as reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (RT–PCR) Other tests can detect a person’s immune response to chikungunya virus infection These are typically used after the first week of infection to test for antibodies to the virus The antibody levels are typically detectable by the first week after illness onset and can still be detected for about 2 months The clinical management includes addressing fever and joint pain with anti-pyretics and optimal analgesics drinking plenty of fluids and general rest. There is no specific antiviral drug treatment for CHIKV infections Paracetamol or acetaminophen are recommended for pain relief and reducing fever until dengue infections are ruled out as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can increase the risk of bleeding There are currently two chikungunya vaccines that have received regulatory approvals and/or have been recommended for use in populations at risk in several countries but the vaccines are not yet widely available nor in widespread use WHO and external expert advisors are reviewing vaccine trial and post-marketing data in the context of global chikungunya epidemiology to inform possible recommendations for use.  Avoidance of mosquito bites offers the best protection against CHIKV infection. Patients suspected of having CHIKV infection should avoid getting mosquito bites during the first week of illness to prevent further transmission to mosquitoes that may in turn infect other people.  The main method to reduce transmission of CHIKV is through control of the mosquito vectors and reduction of mosquito breeding sites who are critical in reducing mosquito breeding sites through emptying and cleaning containers that contain water on a weekly basis and supporting local mosquito control programmes insecticides may be sprayed to kill flying adult mosquitoes applied to surfaces in and around containers where the mosquitoes land and used to treat water in containers to kill the immature mosquito larvae This may also be performed by health authorities as an emergency measure to control the mosquito population People living in or visiting areas with CHIKV transmission are advised to wear clothing that minimizes skin exposure to the day-biting mosquitoes Window and door screens should be used to prevent mosquitoes from entering homes Repellents can be applied to exposed skin or to clothing in strict accordance with product label instructions Insecticide-treated mosquito nets should be used against day-biting mosquitoes by persons who sleep during the daytime WHO supports countries to conduct surveillance and control of arboviruses through the implementation of the Global Arbovirus Initiative WHO responds to chikungunya in the following ways: WHO encourages countries to develop and maintain the capacity to detect and confirm cases manage patients and implement social communication strategies to reduce the presence of the mosquito vectors WHO supports countries to conduct surveillance and control of arboviruses through the implementation of the Global Arbovirus Initiative Second WHO model list of essential in vitro diagnostics The Rocky Mountain wood tick clings to a stem of vegetation A three deer ticks crawl on a man’s blue jeans A jack rabbit with several ticks (one under its eye and two on either side of the nose) rests in the shade Recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies estimate that about 476,000 Americans may be diagnosed with Lyme disease each year But there's another fast-growing tick-borne condition you've probably never heard of — and it could change your life forever and not just in the places you might expect Alpha-gal syndrome is one tick-triggered allergy that can change what you eat the medications you tolerate and how you live the rest of your life According to an article by the National Institutes of Health "bites from infected ticks are responsible for about half a million new illnesses each year in the U.S And those numbers are rising." While Tick-Borne Conditions United notes that Lyme disease remains the most commonly reported tick-borne disease Alpha-gal is quickly emerging as a serious — yet widely overlooked — threat A recent analysis of lab data suggests that Alpha-gal may already be the second most-common tick-borne illness in the U.S., even though it's not officially tracked in most states, and the CDC determined that many health care providers are unfamiliar with the condition most Americans are unaware that a single tick bite could make them allergic to mammalian meat medications and even health and beauty products The risk of encountering disease-carrying ticks extends far beyond remote wilderness trails People with certain occupations and recreational lifestyles face predominantly high exposure park rangers and military members often work in wooded or grassy environments where ticks thrive With extended hours outdoors and frequent contact with vegetation and animals these workers are at the front lines of tick-borne illness risk hunters and birdwatchers — even people walking their dog — regularly immerse themselves in tick habitats Children involved in youth organizations such as the Girl Scouts Boy Scouts and 4-H also spend time in similar environments increasing their vulnerability to tick bites and potential infections Many people assume tick bites only happen in the deep woods or on backcountry hikes some of the most overlooked risk factors are much closer to home Even if a pet is treated with a tick preventive creating a potential exposure risk for everyone in the home Ticks are also increasingly found in urban and suburban areas well-tended city parks and even community gardens can harbor these parasites tick presence has even been documented near beaches Common tick species and the diseases they carry While Lyme disease remains the most recognized tick-borne illness, alpha-gal syndrome is rapidly gaining ground. Once thought to be caused only by the lone star tick, CDC studies now confirm that other tick species — including the blacklegged and Western blacklegged ticks — may also trigger Alpha-gal in the United States "There's so much more to the puzzle of tick-borne diseases that we don't understand," says public health expert Jennifer Platt co-founder of Tick-Borne Conditions United "With thousands of Lyme patients telling us they can't tolerate red meat we've long suspected other ticks are involved." Western blacklegged ticks thrive along the Pacific Coast That means millions of Americans may be at risk for Alpha-gal and not even know it no universal treatment and no consistent tracking system testing is limited and patients can spend years searching for answers Avoiding tick bites is essential to reduce the risk of tick-borne diseases Ticks are active every season except deep winter director of the University of Rhode Island's Center for Vector-Borne Disease and its TickEncounter Resource Center and one of the country's foremost tick experts promotes the three T's for personal tick protection: tucking treated clothing and tight-fitting compression clothing Mather also recommends applying an Environmental Protection Agency-registered insect repellent containing at least 20% DEET picaridin or lemon eucalyptus oil to exposed skin and clothing You can also follow product instructions to treat clothing and gear with 0.5% permethrin or buy pretreated items designed to repel ticks Dress to prevent contact by wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants but be sure to tuck your shirt in at the waist and your pant cuffs into your socks compression-style clothing like leggings and insect-repelling shirts from Rynoskin help keep ticks from crawling up inside of clothing Stick to well-trodden trails and avoid brushing against tall grasses and shrubs place worn clothing in a dryer on high heat for at least 15 minutes before washing to kill any hidden ticks Showering within two hours may help wash off unattached ticks and is a good time to check your body Ask your vet about effective prevention options and check pets daily If you discover a tick attached to your body, remove it immediately. The CDC recommends using fine-tipped tweezers Grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible and pull upward with steady Twisting or jerking can cause parts of the tick to break off and remain embedded clean the bite area and your hands with soap and water or rubbing alcohol Whenever possible, save the tick in a sealed container or plastic bag, noting the date and location of the bite. This can be useful if you develop symptoms later and need to identify the species involved. TickSpotters is a free quick-turnaround tick identification program at The University of Rhode Island Submit a photo of the top side of the tick to classify it and receive tips to reduce your risk of future tick bites As tick populations continue to grow and spread so do the risks of the diseases they carry Awareness is no longer an option with tick habitats spreading beyond their original range Prevention is powerful — and it starts with you practicing safe outdoor habits and reporting tick encounters are powerful tools to protect not just yourself Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration The contents of this article are for informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice The content presented here is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice Always seek the advice of a qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or dietary changes Reliance on any information provided by this article is solely at your own risk Email notifications are only sent once a day summary of the weather details and news of any severe weather We'll send breaking news and news alerts to you as they happen Receive Sunday Local Offers Coupons from St Metrics details Taking a One Health approach to infectious diseases common to both dogs and people pet insurance claims from 2008 to 2022 in the United States were compared to publicly available CDC-based data on human cases for Lyme disease Despite having very different causative agents and etiologies the disease trends for these three diseases were very similar between people and dogs both geographically and temporally We furthermore demonstrated that adding dog data as a predictor variable in addition to the human data improves prediction models for those same diseases when investigating incidence over time With machine learning prediction tools for the pet insurance to predict changes in disease incidence sooner and give public health officials more time to prepare pet insurance data could be a helpful tool to predict and detect diseases by estimating even earlier the effects of these common exposure diseases on human health We also show the spatiotemporal distribution of intestinal worm diagnoses in dogs and while it could not be directly compared to human data because the corresponding disease in humans (soil-transmitted helminths) has not been well monitored recently these data can help inform researchers and public health workers In today’s highly interconnected world where human and environmental health are deeply related novel disease detection methods are crucial Identifying emerging and re-emerging diseases at their earliest stages enables earlier public health interventions and therefore impacts more lives monitoring and modeling diseases provides insights into the epidemiology of these diseases and doing so in multiple species helps to reveal the dynamics of the diseases in these different populations The animal in the United States that shares the most environmental exposures with humans is arguably pet dogs it is most frequently diagnosed in the young – children and puppies – and can be both severe and asymptomatic Both people and dogs that are otherwise compromised such as those with weakened immune systems or the very young and very old are more at risk for severe complications and death from the disease none have shown a direct comparison between human and canine incidence rates over time but domestic dogs are hosts to many of these parasites (Ancylostoma caninum When infected dogs defecate and those feces are left in the environment contact or ingestion of the infective eggs or larvae can cause these infections in humans The symptoms people experience are due to the bodily location in which the worms are migrating – through the skin – and these migrations can cause significant health problems for the infected persons the clinical picture of disease in the pet is more likely to be complete The purpose of this study was to examine a diverse category of diseases across both humans and dogs to determine whether pet insurance claims and information could be a potentially useful tool in the One Health approach to modeling these diseases these diseases were compared between dogs and people using pet insurance data and publicly available data from the Centers for Disease Control Simple general linear models were used to model the nationwide yearly incidence rates to assess whether adding dog data as a predictor improved the linear model as compared to human-only data 1,254,522.5 dog-years were represented in this population of insured dogs between 2008 and 2022 there were a total of 36,419 diagnoses in the infectious conditions of tickborne disease (21%) the diagnosis codes were: Lyme disease (3856 the top four diagnosis codes represented were: internal parasites (2885 the three diagnosis codes represented were: Valley Fever (Coccidioidomycosis) (4413 Geographic distribution of the dogs in the pet insurance dataset Examining the changes in the affected population across the disease categories reveals both anticipated and unexpected findings, as shown in Table 1 Puppies were overwhelmingly the largest group diagnosed with Giardia and intestinal parasites Young adult dogs were the largest group diagnosed with tickborne and fungal diseases There does not appear to be a difference between pure- or mixed- breed status and diagnoses with any of the diseases There were some small differences between diseases but in general the percentages of purebred were approximately 60% and mixed breed were approximately 40% we highlight a specific disease of interest Yearly Lyme incidence rates for both humans and dogs for (A) CDC top-15 Lyme states (B) Nationally graphed relative to their incidence in 2008 (C) Seasonal distribution of diagnosed Lyme case counts – 2008–2020 data overlayed Canine cases multiplied by 200 so graphs can be compared relatively (D) dog and (E) human geographic distribution incidence per 100k in the United States (black-colored states denote absence of data) Human and Canine Giardia incidence trends appear to follow a similar pattern, where canine cases peak in 2009, 2011, and 2015, and human cases peak in 2010 and 2016. Both species experienced lower relative incidence rates in 2013 and 2017 (see Fig. 3). Geographical distribution of Giardia for (A) dog incidence rates and (B) human incidence rates (C) Seasonal trends in Giardia in humans and dogs – canine incidence rate per 1000 (D) Yearly trends in Giardia incidence in humans and dogs The insurance data from dogs show that dogs have a peak incidence in the spring - specifically in March and the incidence slowly decreases from there Similarly to how canine Lyme cases have a more spread out seasonality compared to human Lyme cases canine giardia is much more spread out compared to human cases throughout the year The geographic distributions of diagnoses also appear similar during these years – with the northeast and northwest being most impacted and the southeast less impacted Overall the Giardia incidence rate among insured dogs has been gradually increasing (A) Yearly Coccidioidomycosis trends in dogs and humans (B) case counts of the geographic distribution of coccidioidomycosis (C) county-level human data from CDC (black or grey-colored states denote absence of data) Intestinal worm diagnoses within this population of insured pet dogs: (A) geographically The models showed that the mean absolute error (MAE) for predictions across all the years of data available decreased for each of the models when dog incidence data was added to the model (see Table 2) The amount that the MAE is reduced in each case varies but the addition of dog data improves the model predictions in every case since dogs are the reservoir host for many of the soil-transmitted helminths active monitoring of intestinal worm diagnoses in dogs would likely assist researchers in the surveillance of these neglected parasitic diseases The incidence rate of intestinal worm diagnoses is overall decreasing which may be due to increased use of monthly preventative medications The increases in 2015 and 2020 may have been due to momentarily decreased preventative use due to economic factors (e.g and decreased access to well care for pets) The rise in diagnoses in summer months may correspond with more pets being outdoors and therefore being more exposed to infection or also environmental temperatures being conducive for transmission the peaks and troughs in people and dogs occur in the same years which is logically consistent with the method of transmission: environmental conditions influence the levels of fungal spores in the air more dogs and humans are infected by this single agent Here we successfully showed that incidence rates in both species are temporally similar suggesting that at least for endemic areas spikes in canine coccidioidomycosis rates should correlate with spikes in human rates during the same years Monitoring cases for both species could make the detection of epidemic years more sensitive It was also demonstrated that amongst this pet insurance dataset the geographic trends of the disease are identical to the geographical set in humans In spite of the difference in giardia assemblages primarily responsible for disease in both people and dogs the overall incidence rates for both species from 2008 to 2020 follow similar patterns with peaks and troughs in the trends occurring in similar years the conditions that allow for canine giardia to cause a spike in infections are likely the same environmental conditions that allow for human giardia infections to spike within the same year canine giardia is seasonally highest in spring before human infections begin to rise in May If it can be demonstrated through future research that spikes in canine giardia in spring precede a spike in human giardia in the same year active monitoring of canine giardia diagnoses could help public health professionals to implement interventions to protect people with weeks to months of warning.—It is unclear whether a high Giardia spring season for dogs precedes a high Giardia Summer season for humans it is promising again that pet insurance data could be a surveillance tool for human public health Lyme disease trends in the pet insurance data presented the largest possible benefit to public health canine Lyme incidence trends appear to precede human Lyme incidence trends by two years at both the national and top-15 state level the overall incidence rate in dogs is magnitudes higher than the rate in people making spikes in the disease within this species easier to detect If active monitoring of canine Lyme diagnoses can give public health agencies a 2-year lead time on emergences of Lyme there is the potential that budget planning can earmark funds specifically for Lyme disease interventions The reason for this 2-year gap in trends is unclear through this analysis: perhaps the 2-year lifecycle of the Ixodes vector plays a role perhaps the 2-year lag is representative of the length of time required to obtain a diagnosis in people Regardless of the cause for the 2-year difference knowing canine Lyme trends can help public health agencies to intervene in advance to improve human health The use of pet insurance data in this study is beneficial as it is a large dataset of dogs used to achieve statistically significant results Insured dogs also have varied breed heritage including purebreds and mixed breeds and visit different veterinary practice types (i.e general practice and referral care facilities) This allows comparison of disease across these variables to paint a cohesive picture for infectious disease modeling and management this insurance dataset was able to provide comprehensive temporal and geographical data for dog Valley Fever diagnoses without reliance on reference laboratory results and veterinary teaching hospital records which present additional barriers to data acquisition Insured dogs in the data set tended to be puppies and young adults This is likely due to the lower premium cost for younger dogs and the low probability of a pet having a pre-existing condition Most pet insurers do not cover medical conditions that occurred prior to the inception of the policy perhaps insurance is not the best tool to monitor soil-transmitted helminths in under-served areas some cases of disease may go unreported because a policyholder did not file a claim after seeking veterinary care Cases could also be missed if the date of the veterinary invoice occurred prior to the policy inception date or beyond the 90 day claim submission deadline In spite of these drawbacks to pet insurance data it preliminarily appears to be a very useful tool for monitoring at least three diseases that both humans and dogs share The general linear models that were trained with both human and dog incidence information had a lower error score indicating that across all prediction years adding dog information to the model improves the predictions overall given that there were only a decade worth of data for both humans and dogs and the yearly incidences were a single data point for each year It would be valuable to further demonstrate with incidence dates across human and dog data (and not just overall yearly rates) whether the dog data improves the human prediction models for these diseases more granularly – especially given the difference in seasonality between dogs and humans for both Lyme and Giardia The selected linear model is based on the assumption of a linear relationship between the predictor variables and the outcome variable as well as normally distributed residuals with constant variance these assumptions may not fully capture the complexity of disease dynamics Considering the limited dataset (annual incidence rates over a ten-year period) and the primary objective of the modeling effort (to demonstrate improvement by incorporating dog-related data) the linear model was deemed suitable for this analysis Fetch pet insurance currently utilizes a machine learning algorithm which predicts disease probabilities based on a pet’s information This algorithm is individual pet focused at the moment directed at improving the customer’s experience However this algorithm could be retooled to be a syndromic surveillance database with population-level predictions for diseases within the pet dog population If such a tool can accurately model and predict these shared diseases within the dog population areas of emergence and times of re-emergence could be quickly detected using pet insurance data and used to alert human health practitioners and public health workers If active monitoring of pet insurance data can detect health departments could be alerted to the issues before human cases begin rising excessively this alert could be several years in advance of when human cases start rising so public health agencies have the opportunity to earmark funding specifically for tick prevention and Lyme disease awareness education The counts for each disease were tabulated by state/province The overall population data was also sorted into these categories to determine the total number of active policies (dog-time) a dog with an insurance policy who was insured for half of the year would have a dog-time of 0.5 A dog who was insured for the entire year had a dog-time of 1 The number of active policies in terms of dog time was used as the denominator data for normalization The counts data were normalized and incidence rates were calculated – this was done using a combination of the Excel platform with pivot tables and R studio (see Supplemental Table 1 for a summary of this data) Creating direct comparisons of incident rates for every disease group was not possible as the incident rates were not available for the human population and geographic distribution of coccidioidomycosis were compared based on count data alone the incident rates were plotted relative to the 2008 rate for that species the yearly incident rate was divided by the 2008 incident rate for the species and disease and those relative measures were plotted on the same indexed chart to compare relative human disease trends and canine disease trends This method was chosen over the dual-axis chart to emphasize relative trends of the diseases rather than changes to total counts Specifically for the seasonality of Lyme disease the counts of dog Lyme diagnoses required a 200x multiplier in order to display the trends lines on the same chart The human data for Lyme seasonality was available only in counts so therefore the canine data was also presented in counts for this comparison In order to display the Giardia incidence rates relative to each other on the same chart the canine incidence rates are displayed per 1000 dogs while the human incidence rates are per 100,000 persons General linear models were trained and evaluated using machine learning techniques via the “caret” package in R The mean absolute error for the models were calculated using the package “metrics.” Two models were trained for each disease for which both human and dog data were available The yearly incidence rates for the disease in question were input and a new variable for the slope of the dog incidence rate were calculated The columns were normalized using a scaler function Outcome variable y(n): Yearly incidence rate for humans in year n \(\:\varDelta\:\left(n\right)\): The difference in dog incidences For Lyme: \(\:\varDelta\:\left(n\right)=d\left(n\right)-d(n-2)\) For all others: \(\:\varDelta\:\left(n\right)=d\left(n\right)-d(n-1)\) The first model was trained using the previous year’s human incidence information to predict the year’s incidence rate The second model was trained using the previous year’s human incidence information and the previous year’s dog slope to predict the year’s incidence rate for humans The notable exception is that for the Lyme data the two years ago dog slope was used instead of the previous year’s The models were evaluated using a five-fold cross-validation The mean absolute error for each fold was calculated and the error for the two models for each disease were compared General linear models were used because the data were relatively simple (yearly incidence for two host species) and limited in size The models were evaluated using a five-fold cross-validation procedure and the mean absolute error for each fold was calculated The errors for the two models for each disease were then compared Given that (a) the primary objective of this study was to demonstrate that incorporating dog-related data enhances the predictability of human incidents a linear model with a restricted set of predictors was selected It is worth noting that with the potential availability of more fine-grained data in the future more complex models and a larger set of predictors could be utilized likely resulting in improved model performance Data is provided within the manuscript and all datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request Domestic dogs as sentinels for West nile virus but not Aedes-borne flaviviruses Pet dogs as sentinels for environmental contamination Association between canine malignant lymphoma Detection of Borrelia burgdorferi DNA in museum specimens of Ixodes dammini ticks Detection of Borrelia burgdorferi DNA in museum specimens of Peromyscus leucopus Brave new worlds: the expanding universe of Lyme disease Climate change and Ixodes tick-borne diseases of humans How Far North are migrant birds transporting the tick Ixodes scapularis in Canada Insights from stable hydrogen isotope analyses of feathers Lyme disease risk influences human settlement in the wildland-urban interface: evidence from a longitudinal analysis of counties in the Northeastern united States Lyme disease: knowledge and practices of family practitioners in Southern Quebec Practices of Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment by general practitioners in Quebec Changes in the geographic distribution of the blacklegged tick Predicting distributions of blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) Lyme disease spirochetes (Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto) and human Lyme disease cases in the Eastern united States Predicting Spatiotemporal patterns of Lyme disease incidence from passively collected surveillance data for Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato-infected Ixodes scapularis ticks A bayesian spatio-temporal model for forecasting the prevalence of antibodies to Borrelia Burgdorferi in domestic dogs within the contiguous united States Estimates for Lyme borreliosis infections based on models using Sentinel canine and human Seroprevalence data Canine and human infection with Borrelia burgdorferi in the new York City metropolitan area The controversies surrounding Giardia intestinalis assemblages A and B Autochthonous transmission of coccidioides in animals Identifying areas of high risk of human exposure to coccidioidomycosis in Texas using serology data from dogs Risk factors and Spatial distribution of canine coccidioidomycosis in California Soil-Transmitted helminths in the USA: a review of five common parasites and future directions for avenues of enhanced epidemiologic inquiry Toxocara species environmental contamination of public spaces in new York City Ocular larva Migrans: A severe manifestation of an unseen epidemic Evaluation of owners’ attitudes towards veterinary insurance in a specialty hospital The impact of pet health insurance on dog owners’ spending for veterinary services Factors that influence small animal veterinarians’ opinions and actions regarding cost of care and effects of economic limitations on patient care and outcome and professional career satisfaction and burnout The effect of pet insurance on presurgical euthanasia of dogs with gastric Dilatation-Volvulus: A novel approach to quantifying economic euthanasia in veterinary emergency medicine Soil-transmitted helminthiasis in the united States: a systematic review–1940–2010 A 3-year retrospective analysis of canine intestinal parasites: fecal testing positivity by age Geographical region and reason for veterinary visit Consumer preferences for Pet Health Insurance CDC. Lyme disease surveillance data. Lyme Disease (2024). https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/data-research/facts-stats/surveillance-data-1.html Evolving epidemiology of reported giardiasis cases in the united States Census Data Table. http://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/2020/data/apportionment/population-change-data-table.pdf Download references and veterinarians for their important contributions Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-99229-9 scientists have confirmed tick-borne encephalitis in British patients with no travel history proving that the virus is now spreading locally What does this mean for public health—and how can you protect yourself Study: Tick-borne encephalitis: from tick surveillance to the first confirmed human cases, the United Kingdom, 2015 to 2023 Image Credit: Bukhta Yurii / Shutterstock A disease once thought to be confined to mainland Europe has now made its way to the United Kingdom (U.K.). Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), a virus spread through tick bites, has been confirmed in British patients. In a recent study published in the journal Eurosurveillance investigated the emergence of TBE in the nation TBEV infections can be harder to diagnose due to cross-reactivity with other viruses like Louping ill virus (LIV) Ticks have long been known to transmit diseases such as Lyme disease Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is a flavivirus that can cause severe neurological illness in humans It has been endemic in parts of Europe and Asia for years recent studies have identified TBEV in British wildlife and ticks Most infections with TBEV cause no symptoms, but in some cases, the disease progresses to encephalitis, leading to brain inflammation The study notes that in previous European cases 0.5% of symptomatic TBE cases resulted in death while 2.5% led to long-term neurological complications were seen only in travelers returning from regions where the virus was endemic the first probable U.K.-acquired cases were reported in 2019 and 2020 and with the virus now present in local tick populations could see an increase in domestic cases of TBE The study suggests that climate change and increasing tick populations may be contributing to the spread of TBEV in the U.K The present study explored the first confirmed locally acquired human cases of TBE in the U.K The researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of TBE cases diagnosed between 2015 and 2023 focusing on identifying infections acquired within the country They reviewed the laboratory records from the U.K Health Security Agency’s Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory surveillance was enhanced in 2022 after an increase in TBE cases was observed and the study gathered clinical data from these surveillance records using structured case record forms from patients diagnosed in 2022 and 2023 Additional testing was performed to differentiate TBEV from the related louping ill virus (LIV) Intrathecal antibody production was also analyzed in cerebrospinal fluid samples to confirm central nervous system involvement The researchers also attempted next-generation sequencing to characterize the virus strain in the U.K.-acquired cases but the attempts were unsuccessful due to low viral loads the study incorporated tick surveillance in suspected transmission areas to assess the prevalence of TBEV in U.K particularly in Thetford Forest (East of England) Laboratory testing for TBEV is now included in routine screening for unexplained encephalitis cases in the U.K. even without a history of tick exposure or travel The study confirmed the incidence of TBEV in the U.K and reported that the virus had caused locally acquired human infections The researchers identified 21 TBE cases between 2015 and 2023 12 cases were diagnosed in 2022–2023 Three cases had definite or highly probable U.K acquisition—two confirmed and one possible—demonstrating that local transmission has occurred One patient contracted TBE after tick exposure in Scotland Both confirmed patients developed initial flu-like symptoms followed by neurological symptoms Laboratory testing confirmed the presence of TBEV ribonucleic acid (RNA) or a significant rise in TBEV antibodies Surveillance efforts also confirmed TBEV in ticks collected from these locations supporting evidence of an established enzootic cycle these findings highlighted the challenges of diagnosing TBE Many TBE infections are asymptomatic or mild and serological testing can be complicated by cross-reactivity with other flaviviruses Cross-reactivity with Louping ill virus (LIV) requiring additional PCR-based differentiation The researchers emphasized the need for increased clinician awareness One key limitation of the study was the inability to perform whole genome sequencing due to low viral loads in patient samples This prevented direct comparisons between U.K the findings confirmed that TBEV is circulating in U.K tick populations and can cause human disease the study provided the first definitive evidence of locally acquired TBE in the U.K. highlighting the need for increased surveillance and public awareness testing for TBEV has been expanded to include all referred cases of unexplained encephalitis marking a significant change in public health policy The researchers believe that while the overall risk remains low TBE should now be considered in cases of unexplained encephalitis public health efforts should include tick bite prevention education with campaigns previously focused on Lyme disease now incorporating awareness of TBEV Enhanced monitoring and expanded tick surveillance across larger regions of the U.K are needed to better understand the spread of this emerging infection Posted in: Medical Science News | Medical Research News | Disease/Infection News Chinta Sidharthan is a writer based in Bangalore Her academic background is in evolutionary biology and genetics and she has extensive experience in scientific research in evolutionary biology from the Indian Institute of Science and is passionate about science education she explored the origins and diversification of blindsnakes in India as a part of which she did extensive fieldwork in the jungles of southern India She has received the Canadian Governor General’s bronze medal and Bangalore University gold medal for academic excellence and published her research in high-impact journals Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay Tick-borne encephalitis emerges in Britain: Experts urge vigilance 2025 from https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250210/Tick-borne-encephalitis-emerges-in-Britain-Experts-urge-vigilance.aspx "Tick-borne encephalitis emerges in Britain: Experts urge vigilance" <https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250210/Tick-borne-encephalitis-emerges-in-Britain-Experts-urge-vigilance.aspx> https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250210/Tick-borne-encephalitis-emerges-in-Britain-Experts-urge-vigilance.aspx Cancel reply to comment Learn how experts are advancing benzodiazepine analysis and detection using insights from the lab discusses how he is addressing today’s medical challenges using the technology of the future Explore how the Radian ASAP mass spectrometer is being used to streamline and enhance seized drug screening you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net please log into your AZoProfile account first Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content A few things you need to know before we start Read the full Terms & Conditions Mastitis: What to do when your breasts are painfully inflamed How — and why — to fit more fiber and fermented food into your meals UTI in older women: Why postmenopausal women are susceptible to urinary tract infection Some adults may need a measles booster shot Counting steps is good — is combining steps and heart rate better Can saw palmetto treat an enlarged prostate Anaplasmosis is a tick-borne disease that can cause serious illness between 5,000 and 6,000 cases of anaplasmosis are reported each year If you develop anaplasmosis from a tick bite taking the antibiotic doxycycline as early as possible can help prevent serious illness Anaplasmosis is a bacterial infection caused by the bite of a tick infected with the bacteria Anaplasma phagocytophilum Anaplasmosis is most commonly transmitted through the bite of an infected tick the bacteria can enter the person's bloodstream and attack their red blood cells Many kinds of ticks are found in different parts of the United States The ticks known to cause anaplasmosis are the blacklegged tick and the Western blacklegged tick phagocytophilum in order to spread the disease anaplasmosis is most common in the Northeastern and upper Midwestern states People who live near or spend time in places where ticks are common are at higher risk for anaplasmosis anaplasmosis can be transmitted through blood transfusion Anaplasmosis symptoms typically begin within one to two weeks after the bite of an infected tick But because tick bites are usually painless many people are unaware that they have been bitten Early symptoms of anaplasmosis include fever and chills The early symptoms of anaplasmosis mimic those of other tick-borne diseases as well as common viruses Later complications of anaplasmosis are more serious and include respiratory failure People ages 65 and older and people with weakened immune systems have a higher risk of serious illness from anaplasmosis Your doctor can diagnose anaplasmosis by reviewing your symptoms and medical history (including whether you have spent time outdoors in an area where blacklegged ticks or Western blacklegged ticks are common) and ordering certain blood tests Because the test results may take some time to come back your doctor may prescribe treatment before the results come in Anaplasmosis is treated with the antibiotic doxycycline Doxycycline is most effective at preventing severe complications if it is started soon after symptoms appear Delaying treatment increases the risk of serious illness Doxycycline is usually taken for at least 10 days to treat anaplasmosis People who cannot take doxycycline can be treated with a different antibiotic There is no vaccine to prevent anaplasmosis The best way to avoid anaplasmosis and other tick-borne diseases is to prevent tick bites Steps you can take to prevent tick bites include: remove the tick as soon as possible to help prevent disease transmission a tick must stay attached for 12 to 24 hours in order to transmit anaplasmosis ticks can transmit other infections more quickly you can use tweezers or a tick removal device sold at many pharmacies In addition to anaplasmosis, other diseases transmitted by ticks include Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis, babesiosis Depending on your location and the nature and severity of your symptoms it may be necessary to test and treat for more than one infection (such as simultaneous anaplamosis and Lyme disease) Get the latest in health news delivered to your inbox Do not sell my personal information | Privacy Policy and Terms of Use is yours absolutely FREE when you sign up to receive Health Alerts from Harvard Medical School Sign up to get tips for living a healthy lifestyle with ways to fight inflammation and improve cognitive health plus the latest advances in preventative medicine Get helpful tips and guidance for everything from fighting inflammation to finding the best diets for weight loss...from exercises to build a stronger core to advice on treating cataracts the latest news on medical advances and breakthroughs from Harvard Medical School experts Sign up now and get a FREE copy of theBest Diets for Cognitive Fitness Stay on top of latest health news from Harvard Medical School get a FREE copy of the Best Diets for Cognitive Fitness Mosquito-borne diseases are spread by the bite of an infected mosquito Diseases that are spread to people by mosquitoes include: Employers should protect workers and workers can protect themselves from diseases spread by mosquitoes Not everyone becomes sick after a bite from an infected mosquito short-term illness or (rarely) severe or long-term illness Severe cases of mosquito-borne diseases can cause death Workers are at risk when they work where mosquitoes are biting Different species of mosquitoes are found in varying geographic locations The risk to workers depends on where they are working Some mosquitoes lay eggs in or near standing water Ensure that doors and windows have screens and are kept closed when possible Consider providing hats with mosquito netting to protect the face and neck Provide Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellent with one of these active ingredients: Provide permethrin for application to clothing and gear Find the right insect repellent for you by using EPA's search tool apply sunscreen first and insect repellent second Wear hats with mosquito netting to protect the face and neck Remove items that collect standing water (for example barrels) to reduce places where mosquitoes lay eggs Report symptoms of a mosquito-borne disease to your supervisor and get medical attention CDC Protection Against Mosquitoes, Ticks, and Other Arthropods CDC Preventing Mosquito Bites NIOSH Fast Facts: Protecting Yourself from Ticks and Mosquitoes NIOSH Brochure: Recommendations for Protecting Outdoor Workers from West Nile Virus Exposure (En Español) NIOSH Brochure: Recommendations for Protecting Laboratory, Field, and Clinical Workers from West Nile Virus Exposure (En Español) NIOSH Pesticide Illness and Injury Surveillance US EPA Mosquito Control US EPA Find the Insect Repellent that is Right for You US EPA Insect Repellents: Reducing Insect bites US EPA Pesticides OSHA West Nile Virus Fact Sheet California Department of Pesticide Regulation: Fight the Bite! Protecting Outdoor Workers New York State Fact Sheet for Outdoor Workers: West Nile Virus Information Metrics details Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) infection can manifest as disease of variable severity ranging from subclinical infection to severe disease with neurological involvement and potentially fatal outcome Although TBE is recognized as a major public health problem in Europe the true burden of disease is potentially underestimated we investigated TBEV-specific antibody prevalence and seroreversion and antibody decline rates in a prospective Swiss healthcare worker (HCW) cohort We screened serum samples from 1444 HCWs between June and October 2020 and from a subset again between August and September 2021 using a TBEV envelope (E) protein IgG ELISA Positive samples underwent further analysis with a TBEV non-structural protein 1 (NS1) IgG ELISA and seroconversions in unvaccinated individuals were confirmed by seroneutralization testing Questionnaire data were used to determine vaccination status and risk factors TBEV E protein-specific IgG prevalence was 72.1% (95% CI 68.2–75.7%) in TBEV-vaccinated and 6% (95% CI 4.4–7.8%) in unvaccinated individuals The estimated annual incidence of infection was 735/100,000 Age was the only factor significantly associated with seroprevalence The seroreversion rate in unvaccinated individuals was 30.3% within one year which is almost ten times higher than in vaccinated individuals (3.4% NS1-specific IgG antibodies were six times more common in vaccinated than unvaccinated HCWs and infection incidence is much higher than reported clinical cases Individuals with abortive infections have high antibody decline and seroreversion rates Whether lifelong protection is conferred and by which immune subsets remain unclear The aim of this study was to investigate TBEV seroprevalence antibody dynamics and infection incidence in a prospective cohort of Swiss healthcare workers (HCW) All methods were carried out in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations All study data were pseudonymized and REDCap was used for data collection REDCap is a secure and established web application for clinical studies compliant with the International Council on Harmonization of Good Clinical Practice (ICH-GCP) The primary objectives included determining the seroprevalence of envelope (E) protein and NS1-specific antibodies in TBE-vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals identifying potential risk factors associated with the presence of TBEV-specific antibodies evaluating seroreversion and decline rates of E protein-specific IgG antibody titers within one year and estimating annual incidence of infection Blood samples were collected at time point 1 (June to October 2020) and – for a subgroup of individuals – also at time point 2 (August and September 2021) in 10ml tubes (1,5 ml separation gel) Serum was prepared by centrifugation (10 min at 2,000 rpm) within 24 h after sample collection Serum samples were stored at -20 °C until analysis; during the testing periods samples were thawed and temporarily stored at 2–8 °C A multimodular web-based questionnaire was used Participants received an email invitation to the questionnaire after blood draw for serology at time points 1 and 2 The questionnaire at time point 1 included the following questions: age; sex; place of residence; vaccination against TBE (yes/no) HCW additionally answered bi-weekly questionnaires on acute symptoms compatible with viral infection The questionnaire at time point 2 asked the following questions: Vaccination against Yellow Fever virus (YFV) or Japanese Encephalitis virus (JEV) (yes vs Previous infection with other orthoflavivirus (Dengue virus [DENV] Tick bites noticed during lifetime (reduced to a binary variable Consumption of raw goat milk products during lifetime (reduced to a binary variable Participants who seroconverted between time point 1 and 2 and indicated no TBE vaccination were contacted again They were asked to confirm that they had not received TBE vaccination symptoms reported during the bi-weekly questionnaire were confirmed Samples were screened for the presence of TBEV E protein-specific IgG antibodies using the SERION ELISA classic FSME/TBE Virus IgG test (Institut Virion\Serion GmbH Testing was performed automatically according to the manufacturer’s instructions on the DSX™ Automated ELISA System (DYNEX Technologies Results were expressed as units (U/ml) and classified as negative (< 100 U/ml) The TBEV NS1 IgG ELISA protocol was performed as described previously12 96-well polystyrene plates were coated overnight at 4°C with recombinant TBEV NS1 antigen (The Native Antigen Company) at a concentration of 0.25µg/ml in phosphate-buffered saline PBS (pH 7.4) the wells were blocked with the dilution buffer consisting of PBS with 5% bovine serum albumin and 0.5% gelatine for 2h at room temperature followed by one wash cycle with PBS and drying for 2h at room temperature 100μl of the serum diluted 1:100 in dilution buffer were added to each well and incubated for 1h at 37°C After three washing cycles with washing buffer (PBS & 0.05% Tween 20) 100μl of secondary antibody (Rabbit anti-Human IgG (H + L) -HRP) diluted 1:2000 in dilution buffer were added to each well and incubated for 1h at 37°C Preceded by three washing cycles with washing buffer 100μl of substrate tetramethylbenzidine (1-Step™ Turbo TMB-ELISA Substrate Solution Thermo Fisher Scientific) were added and plates were incubated for 15min in the dark at room temperature The reaction was stopped by adding 100μl of 1M sulfuric acid The optical density was measured in an ELISA reader at 450nm and set the cut-off for a borderline result at + 2 standard deviations (SD) and the cut-off for a positive result at + 3 SD A seroconversion was defined as a positive (i.e. > 150 U/ml) test result and an at least four-fold titre increase in the E protein-specific IgG ELISA in the sample taken on time point 2 from an individual with a negative or borderline test result at time point 1 using the same assay A seroreversion was defined as a borderline or negative (i.e. ≤ 150 U/ml) test result in the E protein-specific IgG ELISA in the sample taken on time point 2 from an individual with a positive test result (i.e. sera were serially diluted twofold in Leibovitz L-15 medium (Biosera) containing 3% fetal bovine serum 50µL of diluted sera were mixed with 50µl virus suspension (1,000 PFU/ml where after 30,000 porcine kidney stable cells in 100µl were added per well The highest serum dilution that inhibited CPE was considered the end-point titer The first well (1:10) was not evaluated because of inconsistent results due to cellular toxicity of some of the sera tested at this dilution Neutralizing potency was evaluated starting from the second well (1:20) serum samples with titers of ≥ 1:20 were considered positive what is the overall prevalence of TBEV E protein-specific IgG antibodies in individuals vaccinated or not vaccinated against TBEV at time point 1 which factors are associated with the prevalence of TBEV-specific IgG antibodies at time point 1 what is the overall prevalence of TBEV NS1 specific IgG antibodies in individuals vaccinated or not vaccinated against TBEV at time point 1 what is the proportion of vaccinated or unvaccinated individuals seroreverting during the study period how do quantitative antibody titers evolve over time in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals what is the incidence of infection in the unvaccinated population during the study period The algorithm shown in Fig. 2 was used to select the datasets used to calculate the results for questions a) through f). Statistical analyses were performed using R version 4.2.1. Question a) and c) were addressed by a Clopper-Pearson confidence interval based on the results obtained for time point 1 for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals we fitted logistic regression models; starting from a model including age and remembered tick bites (yes or possible vs we applied likelihood-ratio tests to test the variables in this initial model and to determine whether adding the region of residence consumption of raw goat milk products or (for vaccinated individuals) complete (3 or more doses) vs or unknown number of doses received) improved the model In addition to the fitted logistic regression model a Wilcoxon/Mann–Whitney test was used to assess whether quantitative antibody titers were significantly higher in individuals who had received a complete basic vaccination (≥ 3 doses) compared with those who had received one or two doses or could not recall the number of doses received Question d) was addressed by a Clopper-Pearson confidence interval assessing the proportion of individuals testing positive at time point 1 and negative or borderline at time point 2 for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals we calculated the ratio of the quantitative TBEV E protein-specific antibody titer at time point 2 to that at time point 1 for each individual and then determined the median of these ratios Question f) was addressed by a Clopper-Pearson confidence interval based on the seroconversion rate between time points 1 and 2 for unvaccinated individuals Out of the 1,527 individuals considered for analysis, 83 were excluded due to inconsistent information about their TBE vaccination status (Fig. 2). The questionnaire responses of the remaining 1,444 HCW are summarized in Table 1 At time point 1, 47 out of 789 individuals (6.0%; 95% CI: 4.4–7.8%) who were not vaccinated against TBEV tested positive for TBEV E protein-specific IgG antibodies. Among the 580 vaccinated individuals, 418 (72.1%, 95% CI: 68.2–75.7%) tested positive (Fig. 3A). Prevalence of TBEV E protein-specific antibodies (A) and NS1 protein-specific antibodies (B) in unvaccinated and vaccinated study participants Whiskers indicate the upper 95% confidence limits Detailed results of the logistic regression models are shown in Supplementary File 1 None of the investigated risk factors (age and consumption of raw goat milk or milk products) were found to be significantly associated with an increase in IgG antibody prevalence in unvaccinated individuals (uncorrected p-values ≥ 0.29) higher age was associated with decreased TBEV E protein-specific IgG antibody prevalence (uncorrected p = 0.046) The prevalence of antibodies in vaccinated individuals was not significantly affected by sex or consumption of raw goat milk or milk products (p-values ≥ 0.19) Individuals who received a complete basic vaccination (three or more doses) had a significantly higher frequency of positive IgG test results in the fitted logistic regression model compared to those who had received one or two doses or could not recall the number of doses received (p < 0.0001 the quantitative antibody titers were significantly higher in individuals having received ≥ 3 vaccine doses (p < 0.0001 For one out of 789 unvaccinated and five out of 580 vaccinated individuals, insufficient sample from time point 1 remained for NS1 IgG antibody testing. Among the 575 vaccinated individuals, 29 (5.0%, 95% CI: 3.4–7.2%) were classified positive. Six out of 788 unvaccinated individuals (0.8%, 95% CI: 0.3–1.6%) tested positive for TBEV NS1-specific IgG antibodies (Fig. 3B) Among the 355 vaccinated individuals testing positive at time point 1, 12 (3.4%, 95% CI: 1.8–5.8%) seroreverted during the study period of one year. Among the 33 unvaccinated individuals positive at time point 1, 10 (30.3%, 95% CI: 15.6–48.7%) seroreverted (Fig. 4). thereof 533 vaccinated and 595 unvaccinated at time point 1) the median of the ratio of TBEV E protein-specific antibodies at time point 2 vs time point 1 was 0.92 (95% CI: 0.91–0.95; lower quartile: 0.80 corresponding to a reduction rate of 8.0% within one year the annual reduction rate was not calculated due to the small sample size Vaccination against YFV or JEV during the study period did not produce a positive result in the TBEV E protein-specific ELISA and therefore did not affect our evaluation of antibody dynamics over time (Supplementary file 2) Our results indicate that undiagnosed infections are widespread and that the true incidence of TBEV infection is significantly higher than the number of reported clinical cases of TBE we found that NS1-specific antibodies were six times more common in vaccinated than unvaccinated individuals suggesting that these antibodies may not be a completely reliable marker for distinguishing the immune response following vaccination from infection The low SNT titers at time point 1 suggest prior exposure for these individuals whereas the significant increase in antibody titers at time point 2 (> threefold titer increase in neutralizing antibody titers > fourfold titer increase in ELISA titers) suggests a booster response as a result of a new virus exposure our results indicate that antibodies do not remain detectable for life after infection but are likely to reflect the past epidemiologic situation These findings underscore the challenges of accurately assessing the true burden of TBEV infection based on seroprevalence data alone which is likely to result in an underestimate it remains to be determined whether protection is lifelong after abortive infections taking into account both humoral and cellular immune responses no significant differences in TBEV seroprevalence were found between subregions of the study Another possibility is that NS1-specific antibodies are elicited only upon primary contact which may explain the negative test result in the two individuals with pre-existing low SNT titers at time point 1 our results suggest that seroprevalence estimates based on NS1-specific antibodies may underestimate the frequency of natural TBEV infections further research is needed to confirm and extend these observations this test may have sensitivity limitations for the detection of low-titer antibodies which may result in an overestimation of seroreversion rates Another limitation of our study is the small sample size for calculating the seroreversion rate in unvaccinated individuals which needs to be confirmed with a larger sample size the follow-up period of one year does not capture long-term antibody dynamics This study contributes to our understanding of the burden of TBE in Switzerland and the incidence of TBEV infection is substantially higher than the number of reported clinical cases of TBE Seroreversion rates in individuals with abortive infections are high; whether protection after such infections is lifelong and by which immune subsets it is mediated remain to be defined The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request Tick-borne encephalitis in Europe and Russia: Review of pathogenesis Tick-borne encephalitis: A review of epidemiology Prevalence of anti-tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) antibodies in Swiss blood donors in 2014–2015 Epidemiologic monitoring of tick-borne encephalitis in Rimov in Southern Bohemia Defining the “Correlate(s) of Protection” to tick-borne encephalitis vaccination and infection - key points and outstanding questions Analysis of Tick-borne Encephalitis vaccination coverage and compliance in adults in Switzerland Tick-borne encephalitis virus vaccines contain non-structural protein 1 antigen and may elicit NS1-specific antibody responses in vaccinated individuals Seroprevalence of tick-borne encephalitis virus and vaccination coverage of tick-borne encephalitis Euringer, K. et al. Tick-borne encephalitis virus IgG antibody surveillance: vaccination- and infection-induced seroprevalences, south-western Germany, 2021. Eurosurveillance https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2023.28.12.2200408 (2023) Vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis elicits a detectable NS1 IgG antibody response Impact of baseline SARS-CoV-2 antibody status on syndromic surveillance and the risk of subsequent COVID-19-a prospective multicenter cohort study Influence of adjuvant type and route of administration on the immunogenicity of Leishmania-derived tick-borne encephalitis virus-like particles - A recombinant vaccine candidate Bojkiewicz, E. et al. The prevalence of asymptomatic infections with tick-borne encephalitis virus and attitude towards tick-borne encephalitis vaccine in the endemic area of northeastern Poland. Vaccines 10(8), 1294. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10081294 (2022) Comparison of three commercial IgG and IgM ELISA kits for the detection of tick-borne encephalitis virus antibodies Persistence of protective immunity following vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis–longer than expected? Immunogenicity and safety of a booster vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis more than 3 years following the last immunisation Long-term persistence of tick-borne encephalitis antibodies in adults 5 years after booster vaccination with Encepur Adults TBE booster immunization according to the rapid immunization schedule: are 3-year booster intervals really necessary? Effectiveness of primary vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis in employees of the armed forces Immunogenicity of delayed TBE-vaccine booster Persistence of immunity to tick-borne encephalitis after vaccination and natural infection Results of the screening of tick-borne encephalitis virus antibodies in human sera from eight districts collected two decades apart Systematic literature review comparing rapid 3-dose administration of the GSK tick-borne encephalitis vaccine with other primary immunization schedules Prevention of tick-borne encephalitis by FSME-IMMUN vaccines: review of a clinical development programme Can the booster interval for the tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) vaccine “FSME-IMMUN” be prolonged matched case-control analysis of tickborne encephalitis vaccine effectiveness by booster interval Vaccination protects against TBE: reporting data Switzerland Development and validation of a novel enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the differentiation of tick-borne encephalitis infections caused by different virus subtypes Utilization of complement-dependent cytotoxicity to measure low levels of antibodies: application to nonstructural protein 1 in a model of Japanese encephalitis virus Nonstructural protein 1-specific immunoglobulin M and G antibody capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays in diagnosis of flaviviral infections in humans Download references The authors thank the participants of the SURPRISE study and the members of the study group (in alphabetical order): Ulrike Besold MD (Cantonal Hospital Baden); Stephan Goppel MD (Children’s Hospital of Eastern Switzerland Gallen); Joelle Keller (Hirslanden Clinic Zurich); Simone Kessler (Cantonal Hospital St MD (Clienia Littenheid); Dorette Meier Kleeb MD (Cantonal Hospital Baden); Elisabeth Möller (Clienia Littenheid); J Müller (Hirslanden Clinic Zurich); Vaxhid Musa (Cantonal Hospital St Gallen); Manuela Ortner (Rheintal Werdenberg Sarganserland Hospital Group PhD (Hirslanden Clinic Zurich); Lorenz Risch PhD (Laboratory Risch Buchs); Markus Ruetti MD (Fuerstenland Toggenburg Hospital Group Wil); Matthias Schlegel PhD (Cantonal Hospital Baden); Reto Stocker MD (Hirslanden Clinic Zurich); Pietro Vernazza MSc (Thurgau Hospital Group Muensterlingen); and Benedikt Wiggli This work was supported by the Swiss National Sciences Foundation (grant number PZ00P3_179919 to PK) NU21-05–00143 from the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic The funding organizations had no role in the study design or decision to submit the manuscript for publication Present address: Interregional Blood Transfusion SRC Arthur Brêchet and Philipp Kohler have contributed equally to this work Reto Lienhard & Rahel Ackermann-Gäumann Institute of Mathematical Statistics and Actuarial Science Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences Division of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology Swiss National Reference Center for Tick-Transmitted Diseases reviewing and editing PK: conceptualization and design reviewing FG: data collection MV: data analysis reviewing and editing DV-G: data collection reviewing and editing AC: method establishment reviewing and editing RL: method establishment reviewing and editing RA-G: conceptualization and design RA-G reports honoraria for lectures and/or research grants from Pfizer and Bavarian Nordic RL reports honoraria for presentations and discussions on the impact and prevention of different tick-borne diseases and the epidemiology of Lyme disease which do also not relate to the present work The other authors report no conflicting interests The study was approved by the ethics committee of Eastern Switzerland (#2020–00502) Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-92560-1 Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Microbiology newsletter — what matters in microbiology research Metrics details Vector-borne infections impose a significant burden on global health systems and economies due to their widespread impact and the substantial resources required for prevention we formulate a mathematical model for the transmission dynamics of a vector-borne infection with the effect of vaccination through the Atangana-Baleanu derivative The solutions of the model are positive and bounded for positive initial values of the state variable We presented the basic concept and theory of fractional calculus for the analysis of the model The local asymptotic stability of the system at the disease-free equilibrium is analyzed To establish the existence of solutions for the proposed model A numerical scheme is developed to visualize the system’s dynamical behavior under varying input parameters Numerical simulations are conducted to illustrate how these parameters influence the dynamics of the system The results highlight key factors affecting the transmission and control of vector-borne diseases offering insights into strategies for prevention and mitigation Our studies focus on the dynamics of non-integer order and nonlocal nonsingular kernels in modeling vector-borne diseases The approach we have taken is a better representation of real-life dynamics because it incorporates fractional order calculus which takes into account memory effects and long-range interactions more efficiently predictions about disease propagation and control are made more precisely using this methodology than is done with ordinary integer models nonlocal and nonsingular kernel formation results in smoother and realistic output thus increasing the stability of the model when compared to others based on classical methods The Atangana-Baleanu derivative is introduced whose nonlocal and nonsingular kernels define the kernel for capturing spatial and temporal correlations in the transmission dynamics The effects of past infections on current transmission dynamics are modelled by the kernels This paper presents a fractional framework for vector-borne diseases where a nonlocal and nonsingular kernel has been used to describe the complicated and non-integer patterns of disease transmission The Atangana-Baleanu Caputo derivative is included in our model that gives a better and comprehensive representation of different relationships among vectors their hosts and their environments that would lead to optimal prediction and understanding of epidemic trends All these outcomes and analyses were utilized for assessing the model 15 \(l:[p,q]\rightarrow \mathbb {R}\) then according to this definition the Caputo fractional derivative of order \(\varepsilon\) with respect to \(l\) can be written in terms of \(p\): Let s belong to \(\textbf{Z}\) and \(\varepsilon\) belong to the interval \((s-1,s)\) 15 Let’s assume there’s a function l such that for \(q > p\) The ABC operator fractional in Caputo representation is defined by: 15 let \(^{ABC}_{p}I^{\varepsilon }_{t}l(u)\) where AB derivative integral can be described as: It implies that the initial function is reachable with fractional-order \(\varepsilon \rightarrow 0\) 15 For a function l defined on the interval \(l \in C[m,n]\) the Lipschitz condition is satisfied by the ABC derivative as follows: 15 A unique solution of this fractional differential equation system could potentially be expressed in the following manner: we will define a mathematical model regarding how the transmission takes place in relation with vector as a means of conveying infection including vaccination and spraying of insecticides The term \(N_h\) will indicate humans’ population whilst \(N_v\) refers to population of people who have structured diseases that lead to their inability for reproduction We clearly delineate four classes of humans which are the susceptible \(S_h\) those who contracted diseases \(I_h\) and those who have recovered from certain infections \(R_h\); on the other hand vector is classified into two groups that include either susceptible or infected forms they are supposed to be represented as \(S_v\) and \(I_v\) respectively the recruitment rate for humans is represented by \(\Lambda _h\) while the recruitment of vectors is denoted by \(\Lambda _v\) The death rate for humans is indicated by \(\mu _h\) and the death rate for vectors is represented by \(\mu _v\) We assume that some amount p of the population vulnerable to infection get vaccinated against it and take their place among those who have received a shot of medication The recovery rate from this infection will be represented as \(\gamma\) disease-caused mortality will be denoted \(\delta\) and vaccine efficacy will be referred to as \(\nu\) A fraction p of the susceptible population is vaccinated and moves to the susceptible class We assumed that the vaccination was not fully effective and moved to the susceptible class after losing the efficacy of the vaccine our model with these aforementioned proposals can be described mathematically as follows: where r is the rate of using treated bed nets and \(\epsilon\) is the efficacy of bed nets which reduce the contact between susceptible and infected individuals of both the populations \(\theta\) is the rate at which insecticide spray reduces the population vectors In accordance with Model (1) all initial conditions for a system should be non-negative; thus The model mentioned above (1) in fractional form can be expressed as: where \(0<\upsilon \le 1.\) In order to make epidemic modeling more efficacious in forecasting and controlling the diffusion of contagions It is given that the Atangana-Baleanu derivative has a great capacity to represent its non-local nature as well as its non-singular behaviors which can be important in describing some physical phenomena accurately The atangana-Baleanu derivative is a mathematical structure that can easily morph into a model of memory systems with long-term relationships It has a wide application area owing to its versatility The solutions of the proposed model (3) of vector-borne infection are non-negative and bounded This part will emphasize the vector-born disease model with regard to DFE, \(R_0\) and LAS. Let \(\mathcal {E}_0\) represents the DFE obtained by taking the steady state of system (3) devoid of any infections We presume that the basic reproduction number is denoted by \(\mathcal {R}_0\) and various methods could be used to compute it Our model’s \(\mathcal {R}_0\) can be determined by following these steps: we have \(R_0\)=\(\mathcal {F} \mathcal {V}^{-1}\) as The threshold parameter \(\mathcal {R}_0\) is determined using the next-generation matrix approach An explicit expression for \(\mathcal {R}_0\) is derived within the framework of the Atangana-Baleanu derivative and the stability of the disease-free equilibrium is analyzed in this context then the steady-state \(\mathcal {E}_0\) locally asymptotically stable In order to attain the stability outcome that is desired we consider the Jacobian matrix at \(\mathcal {E}_0\) which is given by It is clear that the eigenvalues of \(\mathcal {J}(E_0)\) are negative hence giving us the desired results Thus we define the characteristic equation as follows: As like the \(5^{th}\) and \(6^{th}\) eigenvalues are negative we reduce the \(\mathcal {J}(E_0)\) to the sub-matrix formed: \(3^{rd}\) and \(4^{th}\) eigenvalues are also negative as \(\text {Tr}(\mathcal {J}(E_1))< 0\) and \(\text {det}(\mathcal {J}(E_1))> 0\)), For this \(R_0 < 1\), so the system 3 is LAS for DFE we determined the local stability of DFE of our system which shows that the diseases dies out for \(\mathcal {R}_0<1\) In this paper we use the fixed-point theory to prove the existence and uniqueness of solutions in our model It presents a proper theory to analyze the behavior of vector borne disease model The above system describes a vector carried sickness with A-B derivative as follows: \(w(t)=(S_h,V_h,I_h,R_h,S_v,R_v)\) is our state variable in this context when appropriate initial conditions like \(w_0(t)=(S_h(0),V_h(0),I_h(0),R_h(0),S_v(0),I_v(0))\) were defined it possesses the Lipschitz property as follows: The existence and uniqueness of system (4) will be analysed in the next result If this condition holds, there exists a unique solution for the proposed system (4) involving vector-borne illness To get the solution, we employ the A-B fractional integral in equation (2.3) on the system in equation (5) resulting in: The same interval \(I\) needs to be taken as \((0,\mathcal {T})\) and the operator \(T\) is represented as follows: \(\Lambda :\mathcal {P}(I,\textrm{R}^6)\rightarrow \mathcal {P}(I,\textrm{R}^6)\) subsequently, we have equation (8) such as: we denote its supreme norm by \(\Vert .\Vert _I\) which is denoted mathematically as follows According to the fact that \(\mathcal {P}(I,\textrm{R}^6)\) can be classified as a Banach space given the existence of norms \(\Vert .\Vert _I\) \(\mathcal {P}(I,\textrm{R}^6)\) and \(\mathcal {P}(I^2,\textrm{R})\) respectively are places where both w(u) and \(\mathcal {K}(u,\varpi )\) belong Employing the definition of \(\Lambda\) as given in (10) Additionally, as a result of employing the Lipschitz restriction (6) together with the result from equation (1) It is evident that in the event when the previously stated condition (7) is satisfied, \(\Lambda\) becomes a contraction. As a result, it follows that the vector-borne infection model, described by system (4) The solution of our model is investigated with the help of fixed-point theory in the context of the fractional ABC derivative Here, we are to solve our system (4) numerically we first discuss the Atangana-Baleanu derivative The aforementioned towards \(u_{s+1}=(s+1)\Delta u\) might be expressed as the Newton polynomial method is utilized for approximating g(u If we involve the polynomial that has been mentioned earlier in (20), then we can derive: Through simplification, the following result is achieved: The method described below can be used to compute the integrals mentioned above. So, \(V_1=2(s-\imath )^2+(3\varepsilon +10) (r-\imath )+2\varepsilon ^2+9 \varepsilon +12,\) and \(V_2=2(s-\imath )^2+(5\varepsilon +10) (s-\imath )+6\varepsilon ^2+18 \varepsilon +12\). We obtain after simplification: A time series evaluation was conducted on the proposed vector-borne infection model with the fluctuating input parameter \(\upsilon\), that is, \(\upsilon =0.85, 0.90, 0.95, 1.00\). In the suggested system of vector-borne illness with the changing input parameter \(\upsilon\), that is \(\upsilon = 0.5, 0.6, 0.7\) and 0.8 an evaluation on time series has been conducted. Graphical views of the dynamical behavior of our model of vector-borne infections based on various input factor values \(\beta\), that is \(\beta = 0.20, 0.40, 0.60, 0.80.\). We present here graphical views of the dynamical behavior of our model of vector-borne infections based on various input factor values \(\beta\), that is \(\beta = 0.45, 0.55, 0.65, 0.75\). When \(\theta\) takes values of \(\theta =0.20,0.30,0.40,0.50\) show how the disease transmission model for vector-borne diseases will behave The fractional parameter \(\upsilon\) is analysed in the first simulation presented in Figs. 1 and 2 with regards to its impact on vector-borne disease transmission over time The values of \(\upsilon\) were set 1.00, 0.95, 0.90, and 0.85 in Fig. 1 As depicted in Fig. 2 A thorough understanding of a system response in different situations can be obtained through systematic investigation of those fractional values Infection dynamics are significantly affected by the fractional parameter \(\upsilon\) Among the methods for controlling epidemics \(\upsilon\) seems to be the most effective Public authorities should prioritize research on \(\upsilon\) to better understand and potentially reduce disease impact The input parameter p has an effect on the dynamics of vector-borne infections as shown in Fig. 3 While infection levels can be reduced by p it is advisable to increase vaccination efficacy for improved control The simulation used \(\rho\) values of 0.26 Biologically impact are seen Changing input parameters as seen in the Figs. 4 and 5 For different values of \(\beta _h\) being 0.43, 0.53, 0.63, and 0.73 shown in Fig. 4 while \(\theta\) set at the same time was 0.037, 0.067, 0.097, and 0.127 in Fig. 5 A detailed study of that which factors affect asymptomatic and infected hosts is performed Insight from these results is important so that public health and intervention strategies can be effectively designed In order to develop successful control measures for the transmission of infections via vectors it is important to comprehend how these variables interact among themselves The input parameters were chosen based on reasonable values found in existing research on vector-borne diseases These parameters are used to show that the model works and to study that changes in important factors like transmission rates and vaccination coverage the results indicative the significance and sensitivity of the model to certain key parameters as well as their effects on the observed dynamic features of disease transmission The results show that \(R_0\) is most sensitive to changes in vaccination rates Vector-borne infections posed a significant challenge to global health systems and economies due to their widespread impact and the considerable resources required for prevention a mathematical model was formulated to describe the transmission dynamics of a vector-borne infection incorporating the effect of vaccination through the Atangana-Baleanu derivative The model’s solutions were shown to be positive and bounded for positive initial values of the state variable The fundamental concepts and theoretical framework of fractional calculus were introduced to facilitate the model’s analysis was derived using the next-generation matrix method and the local asymptotic stability of the system at the disease-free equilibrium was investigated Fixed-point theory was employed to establish the existence of solutions for the proposed model a numerical scheme was developed to examine the system’s dynamical behavior under varying input parameters Numerical simulations were performed to demonstrate the influence of these parameters on the model’s dynamics The findings underscored critical factors affecting the transmission and control of vector-borne infections providing valuable insights into strategies for their prevention and mitigation Future studies will investigate the impact of pulse immunization on the dynamics of vector-borne infections the individual effects of these immunization strategies will be examined and the transmission dynamics of vector-borne infections will be incorporated within a stochastic framework The data that support the findings of the study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request Human diseases associated with vectors (arthropods in disease transmission) In 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H., Agarwal, R. P., Shah, R. & Botmart, T. Analysis of the time fractional-order coupled burgers equations with non-singular Kernel operators. Mathematics 9(18), 2326. https://doi.org/10.3390/math9182326 (2021) Download references Project financed by Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (Knowledge Transfer Center) & Hasso Plattner Foundation research grants LBUS-HPI-ERG-2023-05 Preclinical Department Faculty of Medicine All authors participated equally to the conceptualization The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest We all the authors of this work revised and approved the work Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-90182-1 Sign up for the Nature Briefing: AI and Robotics newsletter — what matters in AI and robotics research