High habitat richness reduces the risk of tick-borne encephalitis in Europe: A multi-scale study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The natural transmission cycle of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus is enhanced by complex interactions between ticks and key hosts strongly connected to habitat characteristics. The diversity of wildlife host species and their relative abundance is known to affect transmission of tick-borne diseases. Therefore, in the current context of global biodiversity loss, we explored the relationship between habitat richness and the pattern of human TBE cases in Europe to assess biodiversity's role in disease risk mitigation.

Methods

We assessed human TBE case distribution across 879 European regions using official epidemiological data reported to The European Surveillance System (TESSy) between 2017 and 2021 from 15 countries. We explored the relationship between TBE pr

SUBMITTER: Dagostin F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10820641 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature