Researchers at the University of Zurich have found viruses or bacteria in almost all the ticks they have examined, including the Alongshan virus, which was discovered a few years ago.
“Almost every tick can potentially make you ill,” virologist Cornel Fraefel from the University of Zurich, who took part in the study, told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-ATS on Monday. “In many ticks, we found several pathogens at the same time.”
The Alongshan virus (ALSV) was detected in almost twice as many ticks (7.6%) as the meningoencephalitis virus (4.2%). Around 77% of ticks also tested positive for at least one non-viral pathogen. Of the ticks collected in urban areas, 83.9% contained at least one non-viral pathogen.
The dangerousness of ALSV has not yet been clearly established. “The discovery of ALSV is so recent that we can’t yet say whether it is relevant to public health in Switzerland," Fraefel said. According to a Chinese study, the symptoms resemble those of meningoencephalitis. ...