Diakou Anastasia, Foucault-Simonin Angelique, Antoniou Giannakis, Cabezas-Cruz Alejandro, Földvári Gábor
Laboratory of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases, School of Veterinary Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Diagnostics and Laboratory Research Task Force, Balkan Association for Vector-Borne Diseases, Novi Sad, Serbia.
Front Vet Sci. 2024 Jun 6;11:1416501. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1416501. eCollection 2024.
Tick paralysis is a potentially fatal condition caused by toxins produced and secreted by tick salivary glands. This survey presents clinical and epidemiological observations of tick paralysis cases in domestic animals in Cyprus. Local veterinarians report typical tick paralysis cases occurring in goats, sheep, dogs, and cats. The animals suffering from paralysis are free from other neurological diseases, have blood and biochemical parameters within normal ranges, and recover fast by simply removing the ticks found predominantly on the head and around the neck. Tick paralysis cases occur in a specific geographic area of Cyprus (Akamas peninsula), from September through March, but not every year. Instead, the phenomenon has 2 periodic cycles of occurrence, a 3- and a 7-year cycle. The 2 cycles are differentiated by severity based on the number of affected animals and the resulting losses. As described for other tick-borne diseases, these cyclic patterns may be attributed to external factors, self-oscillations of the disease system, or the combined action of these mechanisms. Ticks collected from a recent paralysis case in a goat were morphologically and molecularly identified as . Efforts should be made to characterize the specific toxins involved in tick paralysis and to develop a vaccine, which could prevent significant losses of small ruminants, especially in free-ranging farming systems, a prevalent management approach observed in Cyprus and various regions worldwide.
蜱瘫痪是一种由蜱唾液腺产生和分泌的毒素引起的潜在致命疾病。本调查展示了塞浦路斯家畜蜱瘫痪病例的临床和流行病学观察结果。当地兽医报告了在山羊、绵羊、狗和猫身上发生的典型蜱瘫痪病例。患有瘫痪的动物没有其他神经疾病,血液和生化参数在正常范围内,并且通过简单地清除主要在头部和颈部周围发现的蜱就能快速康复。蜱瘫痪病例发生在塞浦路斯的一个特定地理区域(阿卡马斯半岛),从9月到次年3月,但并非每年都有。相反,这种现象有两个周期性发生周期,一个3年周期和一个7年周期。这两个周期根据受影响动物的数量和造成的损失在严重程度上有所不同。正如其他蜱传疾病所描述的那样,这些周期性模式可能归因于外部因素、疾病系统的自我振荡或这些机制的共同作用。从一只山羊最近发生的瘫痪病例中采集的蜱在形态和分子水平上被鉴定为 。应努力确定蜱瘫痪所涉及的特定毒素,并开发一种疫苗,这可以防止小型反刍动物的重大损失,特别是在自由放养养殖系统中,这是在塞浦路斯和世界各地区普遍观察到的一种管理方式。