The appearance of West Nile virus in New York in 1999 and the unprecedented panzootic that followed, have stimulated a major research effort in the western hemisphere and a new interest in the presence of this virus in the Old World. This review considers current understanding of the natural history of this pathogen, with particular regard to transmission in Europe.
European and Asian viruses within the tick-borne encephalitis Flavivirus complex are known to show temporal, spatial and phylogenetic relationships that imply a clinal pattern of evolution.
This paper is a really nice analysis of results provided by a national tick surveillance program conducted from 2005 and 2009 in Great Britain by HPA. This study shows that useful information on tick distribution and ecology can be obtained from passive surveillance based on punctual records from public, veterinarians, clinicians, wildlife charities and academics from across Great Britain.
In this paper, the authors present results produced by a two-year screening study on ticks from Sardinia for different tick-associated pathogens. They show that Rhipicephalus sanguineus is predominant and presents the most important diversity of pathogens, with its counterpart Rhipicephalus turanicus.