Tick-borne disease poses a significant threat to human and domestic animal health. The most common tick-borne disease in the United States is Lyme disease, which is caused by the spirochete bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi. The complex ecologic relationship between habitat, ticks, pathogens, and wildlife hosts has limited the effectiveness of previous vector control strategies. While no single control method has been shown to reduce tick abundance and associated pathogens, targeting multiple aspects of the tick/host/pathogen lifecycle with combinations of interventions may offer a more effective strategy. The purpose of this work is to investigate the impact of long-term integrated tick management on Ixodes scapularis (blacklegged ticks) and hosts in the Upper Midwest, as well as to investigate recombinant poxviruses as wildlife reservoir-targeted vaccine candidates against tick-borne diseases. To determine whether integration of two environmental control strategies is more effective compared to individual treatments at reducing host-seeking blacklegged tick densities, we conducted a five-year small-scale field trial in south central Wisconsin. The deployment of host-targeted acaricides (permethrin-treated cotton) reliably reduced nymph densities a year after deployment but the addition of habitat modification (invasive vegetation removal) did not improve outcomes. Permethrin-treated cotton impact was explained by reductions in tick and host contact. Overall, this treatment combination does not yield improved outcomes within this setting. Reservoir-targeted vaccination offers an intriguing approach to inhibiting tickborne disease transmission, especially in the case of Lyme disease. However, current strategies require repeated dosing in order to achieve protection. To address this concern, we evaluated highly attenuated poxvirus vectors as potential vaccine candidates. Orally administered, recombinant poxviruses induced robust, long-lasting antibody immune responses in Peromyscus leucopus (white-footed mice). With the insertion of multiple B. burgdorferi and I. scapularis genes as part of a multi-target vaccine approach, recombinant poxviruses induced high serum antibody titers with a protective borreliacidal profile in laboratory mice. These studies reveal the utility of recombinant poxviruses as multi-antigen vaccine vectors and provide considerations for future improvement.

Widespread and increasing resistance to most available acaracides threatens both global livestock industries and public health. This necessitates better understanding of ticks and the diseases they transmit in the development of new control strategies. Ticks: Biology, Disease and Control is written by an international collection of experts and covers in-depth information on aspects of the biology of the ticks themselves, various veterinary and medical tick-borne pathogens, and aspects of traditional and potential new control methods. A valuable resource for graduate students, academic researchers and professionals, the book covers the whole gamut of ticks and tick-borne diseases from microsatellites to satellite imagery and from exploiting tick saliva for therapeutic drugs to developing drugs to control tick populations. It encompasses the variety of interconnected fields impinging on the economically important and biologically fascinating phenomenon of ticks, the diseases they transmit and methods of their control.

Besides causing direct damage associated with blood feeding and in some cases through the excretion of toxins with their saliva, the main relevance of ticks lies in the wide variety of pathogens that they can transmit, including viruses, bacteria, protozoa and helminths. Owing to socioeconomic and environmental changes, tick distribution is changing with incursions of ticks and tick-borne diseases occurring in different regions of the world when the widespread deployment of chemical acaricides and repellents has led to the selection of resistance in multiple populations of ticks. New approaches that are environmentally sustainable and that provide broad protection against current and future tick-borne pathogen (TBP) are thus urgently needed. Such development, however, requires improved understanding of factors resulting in vector competence and tick-host-pathogen interactions. This Research Topic provides an overview of known molecular tick-host-pathogen interactions for a number of TBPs and highlights how this knowledge can contribute to novel control and prevention strategies for tick-borne diseases.

This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact.