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Context and issues

• Major role of ticks in animal but also human health as most tick-borne diseases – the main vector borne diseases in our latitudes – are zoonotic.
• Epidemiology of tick-borne diseases is influenced by agriculture through :
  • Its action on spatial organization of the different biotopes within agro-ecosystems.
  • The involvement of livestock as hosts for tick feeding and potential reservoir for pathogenic agents.

Objectives

• Characterize the genome and the genetic variability of ticks and the microorganisms they carry to :
  • understand their evolution,
  • estimate their dispersal,
  • evaluate their host specificity,
  • study the genes involved in life history traits influencing the epidemiology of thoses diseases,
  • identify potential target for the development of new control methods (acaracides, antiprotozoal, vaccines, antisymbiotic drugs…).
• Understand the eco-epidemiology of tick borne diseases through a better knowledge of the ecology of ticks (population dynamics, ecological preferences…), their hosts and the microorganisms they carry.

Target species

• Ticks (Ixodes ricinus principally, Dermacentor spp., Haemaphysalis spp.)
• Protozoa (Babesia et Theileria)
• Bacteria (Anaplasma spp. and the symbiont Midichloria mitochondrii)
• Vertebrates used by ticks as hosts (domestic animals and wildlife)

Applied fields

• Zoonotic diseases
• Tick borne diseases
• Host-parasite interactions

Expertise and skills

• Parasitology
• Evolutionary Biology (population genetics, phylogeography, phylogeny…)
• Taxonomy (Ixodida, Apicomplexa)
• Écology
• Genomics
• Épidémiology
• Biology-Modelisation interface

Ongoing Projects

• AnaCorSR : characterisation and geographical distribution of anaplasmosis agents in small ruminants in Corsica
• BabH : monitoring human babesiosis in France and characterization of the responsible agents
• BIODILUTIQUE : Biodiversity, dilution effect and tick-borne diseases: analysis of the relationship between pathogen prevalence, tick diversity and host diversity along landscape gradients
• CC-EID : Climate-Change and the risk of Emergence of wildlife-borne Infectious Diseases in agricultural and forest landscapes
• GenIric : whole Genome sequencing of the tick Ixodes ricinus, vector of multiple human and animal
• PiroGoTick : equine piroplasmosis in France: inventory and seasonal variation of equine tick species - genetic diversity of the two responsible agents, Theileria equi and Babesia caballi.

Team members

Scientific executives:

• Claude Rispe (CR, Resp. Équipe)
• Albert Agoulon (MC)
• Suzanne Bastian (MC)
• Thierry Hoch (IR)
• Laurence Malandrin (CR)
• Olivier Plantard (DR)

Scientific and technical support

• Claire Bonsergent (AI)
• Nathalie de la Cotte (TR)
• Maggy Jouglin (IE)

PhD students

• Alexandra Cerqueira de Araujo (PostDoc)
• Michaël Mège (IE)
• Simon Rouault (TR)

We are an important actor in the French research community working on ticks and tick-borne diseases (TBDs).