Ticks as the main target of human tick-borne disease control: Russian practical experience and its lessons.
For several decades, the emphasis in human tick-borne disease control has been on the epidemiologically-based preventive (non-specific) approach where tick vectors were the main target of control impact. A long-term, large-scale campaign for controlling the taiga tick Ixodes persulcatus, the main vector of tick-borne encephalitis, was carried out in Russia in the 1950s to 1970s. The practical experience accumulated during that campaign could be of great value for the current development of strategies of tick-borne disease control. A general scheme of human protection from tick-borne diseases is presented where the required investment into protection is proportional to the risk of human infection and particular strategies of control and protection are differentiated. The critical point in the preventive approach is the necessity of radical tick suppression in the areas with the highest risk of human infection that can be successfully achieved only through chemical treatment directed at the eradication of the entire tick population. The following aspects are considered: the tick population (or a group of populations) as a desirable target of any acaricidal impact (biological and geographic aspects, the fate of the population after treatment); the advantage of long-term planning for control campaigns; and the influence of acaricidal impact on foci of tick-borne diseases. The conception of losses of potential pesticidal impact efficacy provides much room for the improvement of conventional tick control strategies making them more efficient and safe to the environment. The current tendency to make humans the main target of control through vaccination and/or medical treatment (specific approach) does not fit the objectives of effective human protection from tick-borne diseases, especially because of a tick population's ability to carry and transmit more than one pathogen over the same area.
Uspensky
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Department of Biological Chemistry, A. Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
D000818:Animals; D001096:Arachnid Vectors; D006801:Humans; D007306:Insecticides; D012307:Risk Factors; D012426:Russia; D013983:Tick Control / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D017282:Tick-Borne Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control*; D013987:Ticks
D007306:Insecticides