High habitat richness reduces the risk of tick-borne encephalitis in Europe: A multi-scale study

作者：Francesca Dagostin, Valentina Tagliapietra, Giovanni Marini, Giulia Ferrari, Marco Cervellini, William Wint, Neil Alexander, Maria Grazia Zuccali, Silvia Molinaro, Nahuel Fiorito, Timothée Dub, Duccio Rocchini, Annapaola Rizzoli · 发表于：One Health · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1016/j.onehlt.2023.100669 · 被引用次数：17 · 研究领域：Zoonotic diseases and public health、Vector-borne infectious diseases、Viral Infections and Vectors

Background: The natural transmission cycle of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus is enhanced by complex interactions between ticks and key hosts strongly connected to habitat characteristics. The diversity of wildlife host species and their relative abundance is known to affect transmission of tick-borne diseases. Therefore, in the current context of global biodiversity loss, we explored the relationship between habitat richness and the pattern of human TBE cases in Europe to assess biodiversity's role in disease risk mitigation. Methods: ) by means of binomial regression. We validated our findings at local scale using data collected between 2017 and 2021 in 227 municipalities located in Trento and Belluno provinces, two known TBE foci in northern Italy. Findings: Our results showed a significant parabolic effect of HRI on the probability of presence of human TBE cases in the European regions included in our dataset, and a significant, negative effect of HRI on the local presence of TBE in northern Italy. At both spatial scales, TBE risk decreases in areas with higher values of HRI. Interpretation: To our knowledge, no efforts have yet been made to explore the relationship between biodiversity and TBE risk, probably due to the scarcity of high-resolution, large-scale data about the abundance or density of critical host species. Hence, in this study we considered habitat richness as proxy for vertebrate host diversity. The results suggest that in highly diverse habitats TBE r...