FASFC - Exotic vector and pathogen surveillance programme in Belgium - ticks

Data Records

The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 8,195 records.

1 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 385ceabb-2f71-4baf-8623-ae25ff6dcda2.  Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Belgian Biodiversity Platform.

Keywords

Occurrence; tick; surveillance; point of entry; introduction; ground transport; Belgium; disease vector

Contacts

Isra Deblauwe

• Metadata Provider ●
• Originator ●
• Point Of Contact

ITM

BE

ideblauwe@itg.be

http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7268-8965

J Demeulemeester

• Originator

ITM

BE

J De Witte

• Originator

ITM

BE

Dimitri Brosens

• Metadata Provider ●
• Originator

Research Institute for Nature and Forest/ Belgian Biodiversity Platform

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0846-9116

Geographic Coverage

Belgium

Taxonomic Coverage

Vectors: Dermacentor reticulatus, Ixodes ricinus Hosts: Theieria equi, Babesiacanis caballi, Tick-borne encephalitis virus, Borrelia

Temporal Coverage

Project Data

Several vector-borne diseases (e.g. theileriosis, babesiosis, bluetongue virus (BTV), Schmallenberg virus (SBV), West-Nile virus (WNV)) are emerging in Belgium or in other European countries and some are now endemic. The increase in international transport, the removal of quarantine measures within the EU zone and the growing tourism are responsible for the increasing risk of spread of pathogens and vectors. Climate change also exerts a significant influence on the survival and spread of arthropod vectors as well as on the vectorial capacity and competence of these exotic, but also of endemic arthropods. Strengthening surveillance of exotic vectors (mosquitoes, biting midges (Culicoides) and ticks) and their pathogens in areas at risk of importation or spread and risk of pathogen transmission is therefore required. For Belgium, the following exotic vectors or vector-borne pathogens pose a risk: the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), the Asian rock pool mosquito (Aedes japonicus japonicus), Aedes koreicus, the ornate dog tick Dermacentor reticulatus and, BTV, SBV, equine Babesiosis and Theileriosis. Following the implementation of invasive mosquito surveillance in Belgium in 2012, to evaluate the guidelines of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC 2012, Deblauwe et al. 2014a), the surveillance continued in 2013 including that of biting midges and ticks, and their most important pathogens. In 2014 and 2015 only invasive mosquitoes and exotic ticks (Dermacentor) were surveyed because of the necessity to intensify the surveillance measures for Ae. albopictus at two points of entry. In 2016 the focus was on Culicoides and invasive mosquitoes. As bluetongue (BTV8 since August 2015 and BTV4 since 2014) is emerging again in Europe, priority should be given to the monitoring of Culicoides. Furthermore, Ae. albopictus has become a yearly appearing threat in Belgium which also necessitated the surveillance of high-risk PoE of invasive mosquitoes in 2016.

The personnel involved in the project:

Isra Deblauwe

• Point Of Contact

http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7268-8965

Sampling Methods

Active sampling of the exotic tick D. reticulatus at one highly colonised site and at two sites where its presence was suspected. Active sampling of I. ricinus at a medium risk area. Screening of tick species for pathogens (Dermacentor: Theileria equi, Babesia canis, Babesia caballi and Ixodes: Borrelia burgdorferi s.l.) To collect the tick D. reticulatus three Nature Reserves were selected. The Nature Reserve ‘Westhoek’ in De Panne has a large population of this tick species. Two other sites (‘Goed te Parijs’ in Deinze and ‘De Zeven Dreven’ in De Pinte) were selected because of the movement in the end of 2014 of donkeys from de Panne to these sites and the consequent risk of importing D. reticulatus ticks. During the search for D. reticulatus ticks at the Nature Reserve ‘Westhoek’, I. ricinus ticks were collected as well to investigate the prevalence of B. burgdorferi s.l. The results of 2014, 2015 and 2016 are presented here and compared with those of 2013.

Method step description:

1. collection of data in the field by professionals

Additional Metadata