With climate change, the geographic distribution of some VBDs has expanded, highlighting the need for adaptation, and managing the risks associated with emergence in new areas. We conducted a questionnaire survey on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) about vector-borne diseases (VBDs) among sample of Finnish residents. The questions were scored and the level of KAP was determined based on scoring as poor, fair, good, or excellent. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the associations of different KAP levels with sex, age, education, and possible previous VPD infection. We received 491/1995 (25%) responses across the country and detected generally good knowledge, but only fair practices towards VBDs. Sex and age of the respondents were most often significantly associated with the level of KAP (P > 0.05). Despite the generally good knowledge, we detected major gaps, especially regarding the distinction of tick-borne encephalitis and Lyme borreliosis (LB), risk of disease, and protective measures. Additionally, many respondents thought the vaccination protects against LB or tick bites. This calls for awareness raising on disease risk and prevention measures. With increasing cases and the effects of climate change, surveillance of VBDs communication to the general public should be strengthened.

Transmission mode is a key factor that influences host–parasite coevolution. Vector-borne pathogens are among the most important disease agents for humans and wildlife due to their broad distribution, high diversity, prevalence and lethality. They comprise some of the most important and widespread human pathogens, such as yellow fever, leishmania and malaria. Vector-borne parasites (in this review, those transmitted by blood-feeding Diptera) follow unique transmission routes towards their vertebrate hosts. Consequently, each part of this tri-partite (i.e. parasite, vector and host) interaction can influence co- and counter-evolutionary pressures among antagonists. This mode of transmission may favour the evolution of greater virulence to the vertebrate host; however, pathogen–vector interactions can also have a broad spectrum of fitness costs to the insect vector. To complete their life cycle, vector-borne pathogens must overcome immune responses from 2 unrelated organisms, since they can activate responses in both vertebrate and invertebrate hosts, possibly creating a trade-off between investments against both types of immunity. Here, we assess how dipteran vector-borne transmission shapes the evolution of hosts, vectors and the pathogens themselves. Hosts, vectors and pathogens co-evolve together in a constant antagonistic arms race with each participant's primary goal being to maximize its performance and fitness.

Urbanisation and climate change are altering the pattern of California serogroup viruses in North America. As La Crosse virus (LACV) is the most pathogenic of the California serogroup, it is important to identify changes in distribution, transmission and pathogenesis. A scoping review (ScR) was prioritised to summarise the global evidence on LACV. A comprehensive search strategy was used, identified references were screened for relevance and relevant articles were characterised. Each step was conducted by two independent reviewers using pre-tested forms. Analysis identified areas of research saturation and gaps. The ScR included 481 research articles that were mostly journal articles (78.2%) conducted in North America (90.9%) from 1969 to 2016. Most evidence focused on epidemiology (44.9%), virus characteristics (25.8%), transmission conditions (18.7%) and pathogenesis of LACV in hosts (18.3%). Fewer studies evaluated the accuracy of diagnostic tests (8.7%), the efficacy of treatments (3.5%), prevention and control strategies (3.1%), the economic burden of infection (0.6%) and social impact (0.2%) of LACV. None of the literature predicted the impact of climate change on LACV, nor were any cases reported in Canada. These findings are intended to guide research to close knowledge gaps and inform evidence-based decisions surrounding activities for the prevention and control of LACV.

Vector-borne diseases are exceptionally sensitive to climate change. Predicting vector occurrence in specific regions is a challenge that disease control programs must meet in order to plan and execute control interventions and climate change adaptation measures. Recently, an increasing number of scientific articles have applied ecological niche modelling (ENM) to study medically important insects and ticks. With a myriad of available methods, it is challenging to interpret their results. Here we review the future projections of disease vectors produced by ENM, and assess their trends and limitations. Tropical regions are currently occupied by many vector species; but future projections indicate poleward expansions of suitable climates for their occurrence and, therefore, entomological surveillance must be continuously done in areas projected to become suitable. The most commonly applied methods were the maximum entropy algorithm, generalized linear models, the genetic algorithm for rule set prediction, and discriminant analysis. Lack of consideration of the full-known current distribution of the target species on models with future projections has led to questionable predictions. We conclude that there is no ideal ‘gold standard’ method to model vector distributions; researchers are encouraged to test different methods for the same data. Such practice is becoming common in the field of ENM, but still lags behind in studies of disease vectors.

Blood parasites are considered some of the most significant pathogens for the conservation of penguins, due to the considerable morbidity and mortality they have been shown to produce in captive and wild populations of these birds. Parasites known to occur in the blood of penguins include haemosporidian protozoans (Plasmodium, Leucocytozoon, Haemoproteus), piroplamid protozoans (Babesia), kinetoplastid protozoans (Trypanosoma), spirochete bacteria (Borrelia) and nematode microfilariae. This review provides a critical and comprehensive assessment of the current knowledge on these parasites, providing an overview of their biology, host and geographic distribution, epidemiology, pathology and implications for public health and conservation.

Vector-borne diseases are one of the world's major public health threats and annually responsible for 30–50% of deaths reported to the national notifiable disease system in China. To control vector-borne diseases, a unified, effective and economic surveillance system is urgently needed; all of the current surveillance systems in China waste resources and/or information. Here, we review some current surveillance systems and present a concept for an integrated surveillance system combining existing vector and vector-borne disease monitoring systems. The integrated surveillance system has been tested in pilot programmes in China and led to a 21·6% cost saving in rodent-borne disease surveillance. We share some experiences gained from these programmes.

Aggregation of parasites amongst hosts is important for the epidemiology of vector-borne diseases because hosts that support the majority of the vector population are responsible for the majority of pathogen transmission. Ixodes ricinus ticks transmit numerous pathogens of medical importance including Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. and tick-borne encephalitis virus. One transmission route involved is ‘co-feeding transmission’, where larvae become infected via feeding alongside infected nymphs. The aggregation of ticks on hosts leads to an increase in the number of larvae feeding alongside nymphs, increasing the transmission potential via this route. The basic reproduction number, R0, can be used to identify whether a pathogen will become established if introduced. In the current study we use previously published tick, and pathogen, specific data to parameterize an R0 model to investigate how the degree of aggregation of ticks on hosts affects pathogen persistence. The coincident aggregated distribution permitted the establishment of tick-borne encephalitis virus but did not influence whether B. burgdorferi s.l. became established. The relationship between the k-exponent of the negative binomial distribution and R0 was also defined. Therefore, the degree of aggregation of ticks on small mammal hosts has important implications for the risk to human health in a given area.

The twin concepts of zooprophylaxis and the dilution effect originated with vector-borne diseases (malaria), were driven forward by studies on Lyme borreliosis and have now developed into the mantra “biodiversity protects against disease”. The basic idea is that by diluting the assemblage of transmission-competent hosts with non-competent hosts, the probability of vectors feeding on transmission-competent hosts is reduced and so the abundance of infected vectors is lowered. The same principle has recently been applied to other infectious disease systems – tick-borne, insect-borne, indirectly transmitted via intermediate hosts, directly transmitted. It is claimed that the presence of extra species of various sorts, acting through a variety of distinct mechanisms, causes the prevalence of infectious agents to decrease. Examination of the theoretical and empirical evidence for this hypothesis reveals that it applies only in certain circumstances even amongst tick-borne diseases, and even less often if considering the correct metric – abundance rather than prevalence of infected vectors. Whether dilution or amplification occurs depends more on specific community composition than on biodiversity per se. We warn against raising a straw man, an untenable argument easily dismantled and dismissed. The intrinsic value of protecting biodiversity and ecosystem function outweighs this questionable utilitarian justification.

A one-year longitudinal study was conducted in 92 smallholder diary farms in Kwale district of Kenya, to evaluate the efficacy of Spot-on® (a 10 % deltamethrin pour-on) in the control of East Coast fever, anaplasmosis, babesiosis and trypanosomosis. A comparison of the annual incidence and mortality rates from these diseases was made among four Spot-on® application regimes: biweekly, monthly, bimonthly and untreated control groups. The incidence of East Coast fever, ranging from 2.6 to 6.8% among the treated animals, was significantly lower than in the control group (18.8%). Anaplasmosis incidence ranged from 2.6 to 13.5%, but the differences among the treatments were not statistically significant. There were only seven confirmed cases of babesiosis and therefore no statistical comparisons of the incidence rates were made. The incidence rates of trypanosomosis in the biweekly- (28.2 %) and monthly-treated animals (38.6 %) were statistically lower than in the bimonthly (63.9 %) and control groups (72.6 %). It was concluded that monthly application of Spoton® could significantly reduce the incidence of tick-borne diseases and trypanosomosis in cattle in the coastal lowlands.

Vector-borne diseases such as malaria, lymphatic filariases, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, onchocerciasis, trypanosomiasis, dengue and dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF), yellow fever and Japanese encephalitis, globally account for suffering amongst more than one billion people, mostly from the developing world. Geographical distribution and prevalence of these diseases have been discussed. In addition to the mortality caused by these diseases, millions of people lead a hopeless life and are socially unable to achieve self-realization and be economically productive, as a result of these diseases. Examples of such economic impact and the costs of these diseases and methods of control have been given. Economic benefits of control of some of these diseases have been discussed. These concepts are of utility when resource allocation for control of these diseases is under consideration.