Parasites and wildlife in a changing world: The vector-host- pathogen interaction as a learning case

Rizzoli, Annapaola; Tagliapietra, Valentina; Cagnacci, Francesca; Marini, Giovanni; Arnoldi, Daniele; Rosso, Fausta; Rosà, Roberto

However, these measures of R 0,T and VC T are a simplification as tick-borne infections involve more complex biological processes and transmission dynamics (three life stages: larvae, nymphs, adults) with respect to mosquito-borne pathogens, so that modelling is not so straightforward (Hartemink et al., 2008; Rosà et al., 2003) . In addition, pathogen transmission may follow several routes: transovarial (from an infected female tick to her eggs), transstadial (from a tick stage to the next), systemic (from an infectious vertebrate host to an uninfected tick) and non-systemic transmission (i.e. infected and uninfected ticks simultaneously feed on susceptible or immune vertebrate hosts, resulting in all ticks in the co-feeding group potentially becoming infected). In particular, co-feeding transmission is recognized to be the most efficient transmission route for some pathogens like TBEV (Labuda et al., 1997; Nonaka et al., 2010; Randolph, 2011) .