10 results match your criteria: "Centre for Alpine Ecology[Affiliation]"
Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis
April 2009
Centre for Alpine Ecology, Edmund Mach Foundation, Trento, Italy.
Anaplasma phagocytophilum is an emerging tick-borne pathogen with both veterinary and human health implications. The role of wildlife hosts for this pathogen are not well defined, even thought roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) has been suggested to contribute to the occurrence of this tick-borne diseases in Europe. Therefore the aim of the present study was to investigate the potential role of this ungulate species as a reservoir of human pathogenic strains of A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGeospat Health
May 2007
Centre for Alpine Ecology, Viote del Monte Bondone, 38040 Trento, Italy.
New human cases of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) have recently been recorded outside the recognised foci of this disease, i.e. in the province of Trento in northern Italy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpidemiol Infect
October 2008
Centre for Alpine Ecology, Viote del Monte Bondone, Trento, Italy.
Roe deer Capreolus capreolus are among the most important feeding hosts for the sheep tick Ixodes ricinus, thus contributing to the occurrence of tick-borne diseases in Europe. Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), which is transmitted by co-feeding of larvae and nymphs on rodents, requires precise climatic conditions to occur. We used roe deer as sentinels for potential circulation of TBE virus in Northern Italy, by examining the association between tick infestation, occurrence of TBE human cases, geographical and climatic parameters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVector Borne Zoonotic Dis
November 2008
Centre for Alpine Ecology, Trento, Italy.
Ninety percent (56/62) of sentinel chickens introduced to two regions within the Italian Alps seroconverted to West Nile virus (WNV) during the summer of 2005, showing a range of antibody titres from 1/20 to 1/320 in a virus neutralization test. Neutralization specificity for WNV antibodies was confirmed on an additional 34 sera that were tested in parallel against WNV (16/34 seropositivity), Usutu virus (3/34 seropositivity) and Koutango virus. The geometric mean neutralizing titre (GMT) calculated for WN-specific antibodies was 33.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVector Borne Zoonotic Dis
November 2008
Centre for Alpine Ecology, Viote del Monte Bondone, Trento, Italy.
The risk to humans of contracting tick-borne zoonotic diseases depends on the risk of a bite from an infected tick, which can be broken down into its component parts as the number of host-seeking ticks in the environment, in particular nymphs, and the prevalence of tick-borne pathogens they are carrying. In turn, the prevalence of tick-borne pathogens is dependent upon tick biting intensity on hosts that support transmission between ticks; namely rodents. These ticks once fed moult into the next life stage and search for the next blood meal, thus posing a zoonotic risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Med Microbiol
February 2007
Centre for Alpine Ecology, I-38040 Viote del Monte Bondone, Trento, Italy.
Sequences of the variable intergenic spacer region 5S (rrfA) 23S (rrlB) rRNA were used to identify Borrelia genospecies present in Ixodes ricinus nymphs collected from the Lamar Lakes area of the Province of Trento, Italy (overall prevalence=6.3%). Four genospecies were identified, one for the first time in this Province (B.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMath Biosci
July 2007
Centre for Alpine Ecology, Viote del Monte Bondone, 38040 Trento, Italy.
The transmission and the persistence of tick-borne infections are strongly influenced by the densities and the structure of host populations. By extending previous models and analysis, in this paper we analyse how the persistence of ticks and pathogens, is affected by the dynamics of tick populations, and by their host densities. The effect of host densities on infection persistence is explored through the analysis and simulation of a series of models that include different assumptions on tick-host dynamics and consider different routes of infection transmission.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Theor Biol
October 2003
Centre for Alpine Ecology, Viote del Monte Bondone, 38040 Trento, Italy.
Lyme disease and Tick-Borne Encephalitis (TBE) are two emergent tick-borne diseases transmitted by the widely distributed European tick Ixodes ricinus. The life cycle of the vector and the number of hosts involved requires the development of complex models which consider different routes of pathogen transmission including those occurring between ticks that co-feed on the same host. Hence, we consider here a general model for tick-borne infections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTheor Popul Biol
June 2003
Centre for Alpine Ecology, Viote del Monte Bondone, 38040 Trento, Italy.
Our understanding of the qualitative dynamics of host-macroparasite systems is mainly based on deterministic models. We study here an individual-based stochastic model that incorporates the same assumptions as the classical deterministic model. Stochastic simulations, using parameter values based on some case studies, preserve many features of the deterministic model, like the average value of the variables and the approximate length of the cycles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTheor Popul Biol
May 2002
Centre for Alpine Ecology, Viote del Monte Bondone, 38040 Trento, Italy.
Aggregation is generally recognized as an important factor in the dynamics of host-macroparasite interactions and it has been found relevant in stabilizing the dynamics toward an equilibrium coexistence. In this paper we review the models of Anderson and May (1978, J. Anim.
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