Monitoring of ticks and their pathogens from companion animals obtained by the "tekenscanner" application in The Netherlands.

ABSTRACT: Ticks are vectors for many pathogens of veterinary and medical interest. In order to monitor ticks and tick-borne pathogens, the "Tekenscanner" (Dutch for Tick scanner), a citizen science project, was launched in The Netherlands. It is a smartphone application for pet-owners to get ticks from their dog or cat, identified and checked for pathogens for free. At the same time, information about the pet and the geographic location of tick infestation becomes available for research. The application was launched in 2018, and the results of the first 6 months after launch of the app were reported. Ticks were identified based on morphology, and DNA was extracted and amplified by a panel of tick-borne pathogen-specific primers. Next, the amplicons were subjected to reverse line blot with specific p

SUBMITTER: Kooyman FNJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9023694 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature