2022 Volume 31 Issue 2 Pages 49-65
Ticks are common vectors of zoonotic infectious diseases in humans. Chemical pesticides have been used to control tick populations for several decades especially in the livestock industry, but those have resulted in the rapid acquisition of resistance to pesticides by ticks. Additionally, because of environmental pollution and human-health concerns arising from the use of chemicals, non-pesticidal control measures, such as biological control, immunological/genetic methods, and wildlife management have become more popular. However, no single measure has produced convincing outcomes due to inconsistent results, and the high cost of the methods. In particular, the scale of biological control is spatiotemporally limited and it has proven difficult to select an appropriate target species in wildlife management. For each individual measure, and its integration, it is crucial to identify the local tick population dynamics, and accurately determine tick micro-habitats and host competence. Biodiversity may function to reduce the risk of tick-borne diseases, but no hypothesis has yet been proposed to explain fully the mechanisms involved. Further studies are required to develop ecosystem management principles that will prevent the outbreak of both ticks and pathogens in wildlife. Such measures should be based on the conservation of biodiversity, possibly in combination with zoning.
