Posted20 avril 2022, 21:33
The dry and mild spring favored the proliferation of these dreaded insects and the inconveniences that go with them, warns a specialist.
With the good weather, cases of tick bites might increase in the coming days.
https://zecke-tique-tick.ch/de
The Easter weekend saw warm and sunny weather, encouraging nature getaways. Consequences: a marked increase in bites, expects specialist Werner Tischhauser, interviewed by “20 minutes”. “The April figures will clearly exceed those of March. Vegetation has woken up in the past two weeks, as have ticks, which are now actively watching for their hosts, near blades of grass, as well as in bushes and hedges.
The vice-president of the Swiss League of people with tick-borne diseases warns: “Over the past five years, there was a high level of tick bites and the associated disease verno-summer meningoencephalitis (FSME). This trend will not subside this year”. For the past two years, the Federal Statistical Office has reported a peak in infections in June. “The forest, peripheral areas and nearby recreation areas are particularly attractive to ticks. But gardens also represent a risk zone, where humans and ticks meet, ”recalls Werner Tischhauser.
Cas name of summer-summer meningo-encephalites (FSME).
FOPH
The reasons for a marked increase in tick bites in recent years are manifold. “Social and large-scale changes have taken place. The man is often outside, since the Covid epidemic, the forest having become the space of relaxation par excellence. Global warming as well as the development of brushy areas in peripheral areas play a role”, explains the former researcher at the University of Applied Sciences in Zurich.
The tick has also adapted over time. “It is simply no longer true that the tick is no longer found above 1500 meters in altitude, wishes to specify the specialist. It is estimated that it survives up to the tree line, wherever it is not too cold and it can still find hosts to feed on. The tick has also spread geographically. In Scandinavia, at the height of the Arctic Circle, moose have already died due to numerous tick bites. This had never happened before.”
(jba)
