Tick-borne viruses: The important pathogens of human beings and livestocks

Abstract

Ticks are important arthropods that can carry and transmit a variety of pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, rickettsiae, anaplasmas, spirochetes and protozoas. Tick-borne viruses (TBV) are major category of important arboviruses. Currently TBV can be divided into 2 orders, 9 families, 12 genera and at least 160 species.However, some TBV have not been systematically classified. TBV, which have had a significant impact on our country, such as tick-borne encephalitis virus, severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome bunyavirus and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (also known as "Xinjiang hemorrhagic fever virus" in China), as well as the recent epidemic of African swine fever virus, have had many harmful effects on human beings, livestocks health and social economy. Although there are no domestic reports of TBV such as West Nile virus, Colorado tick fever virus and Bourbon virus infecting human beings and livestocks, they have caused serious damage to the endemic countries. The lack of specific clinical manifestations in the early stage of diseases caused by TBV, coupled with the lack of enough understanding of this kind of diseases, will hamper the early diagnosis, treatment and the control of the disease. With the development of microbial detection techniques such as metagenomic sequencing, we are able to find evidence of TBV infection more quickly. Besides its medical value, the research of TBV also provides some reference value for the research of national biosafety strategy. Due to global warming, human overexploitation of natural resources, and increased communication among countries, the risk of TBV transmission is increasing. Now public health departments in various countries have to face huge challenges. In this paper, the research status of tick-borne viruses is reviewed.

Abstract

摘要： 蜱是一种重要的可携带并传播多种病原体的节肢动物, 携带的病原体涵盖了病毒、细菌、立克次体、无形体、 螺旋体及原虫等。蜱媒病毒 (Tick-borne viruses, TBV) 是一大类重要的虫媒病毒, 目前所发现的蜱媒病毒可分为 2 个 目, 9 个科, 12 个属, 至少 160 种, 然而尚有部分蜱媒病毒未被系统地归类。蜱媒病毒中对我国已造成较大影响的有蜱 传脑炎病毒、发热伴血小板减少综合征布尼亚病毒和克里米亚-刚果出血热病毒 (国内又名“新疆出血热病毒”) , 以及 近期流行的非洲猪瘟病毒, 对人畜动物建康及社会经济均带来了许多不利的影响。而国内虽然未见西尼罗病毒、科罗 拉多蜱传热病毒和波本病毒等蜱媒病毒感染人畜动物的报道, 但其对所流行的国家却造成了重创。蜱媒病毒所致疾 病早期往往缺乏特异的临床表现, 加之人们对这一类疾病缺乏足够的认识, 这些都会阻碍疾病的早期诊治及有效控 制。随着宏基因组测序分析等微生物检测技术的发展, 我们能够更快速地找到蜱媒病毒感染的证据。蜱媒病毒的研 究除了具有医学价值, 对国家生物安全战略的研究也提供一定的参考。受全球气候变暖、人类对自然资源的过度开发 及各国之间交流日益密切等因素影响, TBV 随之传播的风险也逐渐增加, 如今各国公共卫生部门都将面临巨大的挑 战。本文拟对蜱媒病毒的研究现状进行综述。