Tick bites are not that rare. Since the launch of the Citique participatory program, coordinated by the National Research Institute foragricultureagriculturefood and the environment (INRAE) in January 2017, nearly 86,000 of those who should rather be described as bitesbites ticks have been reported. Including almost 73,000 on humans. Incidents of bites which are occurring more and more even in our gardens.
The risk with tick bites
The problem is that a tick bite may not be harmless. Because ticks, remember, can carry pathogens.
In our country, we find mainly what we call Ixodes ricinus. It transmits, for example, the famous Lyme disease. But for some time now, ticks of another kind seem to want to settle in the departments around the Mediterranean – because they like rather dry environments like the scrublandscrubland where the maquismaquis. Of the Hyalomma marginatum who can be carriers of virusvirus of the feverfever Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Disease (FHCC) whose fatality rate reaches 30% in certain countries. Although no human cases have yet been reported, at the end of 2023, the virus was nevertheless detected for the first time in France in ticks collected from cattle. The risk of contaminationcontamination is now real. Especially since, unlike Ixodes ricinus, Hyalomma marginatum does not just wait for its victims, perched on a twig. This tick hides in the ground and can literally pursue its prey for a hundred meters and for around ten minutes…
A “tick risk” weather forecast to warn us
To help protect the population, researchers are tirelessly analyzing data collected by citizen scientists and in seven observatories characterized by different climates in mainland France as well as meteorological data and environmental data (altitude, vegetation, soil). , etc.)). Additional field observation campaigns are also carried out. What comes out of it? A map indicating risk areas. And very soon, a model that will make it possible to give weather reportweather report of “tick risk”. To predict tick activity based on weather conditions. A card that is all the more important with the global warmingglobal warming, the survival of ticks is favored and its life cycle accelerates. And with a Mediterranean climateMediterranean climate which could extend to the Rhône valley and the Atlantic coasts, Hyalomma marginatum seems to have a bright future ahead of her.
