title: Review: Sentinels of tick-borne encephalitis risk.
abstract: Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a viral zoonotic disease endemic in many regions of Eurasia. The definition of TBE risk areas is complicated by the focal nature of the TBE virus transmission. Furthermore, vaccination may reduce case numbers and thus mask infection risk to unvaccinated persons. Therefore, additional risk indicators are sought to complement the current risk assessment solely based on human incidence. We reviewed studies published over the past ten years investigating potential new sentinels of TBE risk to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the various sentinel animal surveys and surrogate indicator methods. Virus prevalence in questing ticks is an unsuitable indicator of TBE infection risk as viral RNA is rarely detected even in large sample sizes collected at known TBE endemic areas. Seroprevalence in domestic animals, on the other hand, showed good spatial correlation with TBE incidence in humans and might also uncover presently unknown TBEV foci.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Biological Threats and Special Pathogens: Highly Pathogenic Viruses (ZBS 1), Robert Koch Institute, Nordufer 20, 13353 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: maren_imhoff@gmx.de.
authors.forename: Maren
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Imhoff
authors.affiliation: Centre for Biological Threats and Special Pathogens: Highly Pathogenic Viruses (ZBS 1), Robert Koch Institute, Nordufer 20, 13353 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: HagedornP@rki.de.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hagedorn
authors.affiliation: Centre for Biological Threats and Special Pathogens: Highly Pathogenic Viruses (ZBS 1), Robert Koch Institute, Nordufer 20, 13353 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: yesicaneyra@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Yesica
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Schulze
authors.affiliation: Centre for Biological Threats and Special Pathogens: Highly Pathogenic Viruses (ZBS 1), Robert Koch Institute, Nordufer 20, 13353 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: HellenbrandW@rki.de.
authors.forename: Wiebke
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hellenbrand
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Hygiene & Veterinary Public Health, Centre of Veterinary Public Health, University of Leipzig, An den Tierkliniken 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: pfeffer@vetmed.uni-leipzig.de.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pfeffer
authors.affiliation: Centre for Biological Threats and Special Pathogens: Highly Pathogenic Viruses (ZBS 1), Robert Koch Institute, Nordufer 20, 13353 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: NiedrigM@rki.de.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Niedrig
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001208:Asia / Q000453:epidemiology; D004675:Encephalitis, Tick-Borne / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000276:immunology; D015047:Zoonoses
chemical_list: D014765:Viral Vaccines
keywords: Indicator; Risk; Sentinel; Tick-borne encephalitis