From the early description of ticks as vector for bovine babesiosis and anaplasmosis by Smith and Kilbourne, ticks and tick-borne diseases are known to be the cause of tremendous economic losses due to death, costs of treatment and recovery of sick animals. While there are products for the specific treatment of ticks and some of these diseases, the timely application of treatment, however, is complicated by factors such as the opportunity to detect the disease, the absence of pathognomonic clinical signs, the dispersion of animals in paddocks and, the resistance of vectors to acaricides and variations in population densities of ticks in the localities. Vaccination against many of these diseases is still based on the use of live attenuated (as in bovine babesiosis) or live naturally “avirulent” strains (as in Anaplasma centrale) and development of new prophylactic alternatives is currently under investigation.
There are few prophylactic alternatives for tick-borne diseases in cattle and most of the rely on live attenuated organisms such as Babesia bovis or B. bigemina, or subspecies that are used as live agents such as Anaplasma centrale. Current efforts for new vaccines are based on genomic and proteomic studies including approaches such as DNA vaccines, recombinant proteins known to be involved in host infection, and characterization of the diversity of potential vaccine targets in the pathogen or their relationship with host/receptor proteins. There are still many questions about which are the best vaccines in terms of immunogenicity, preservation, variability. This Research Topic will attempt to collect reviews and current experimental data in the search for new alternatives for the control and immunoprophylaxis of tick-borne diseases targeting the pathogen itself or the tick vector.
Manuscripts to be included in this Research Topic, include the use of new drugs or drugs not traditionally used for the control of tick-borne disease; Reviews and experimental data in new alternatives for the immunoprophylactic control of ticks and tick-borne diseases of known importance in veterinary medicine and particularly or relevance in cattle and other small ruminants.
From the early description of ticks as vector for bovine babesiosis and anaplasmosis by Smith and Kilbourne, ticks and tick-borne diseases are known to be the cause of tremendous economic losses due to death, costs of treatment and recovery of sick animals. While there are products for the specific treatment of ticks and some of these diseases, the timely application of treatment, however, is complicated by factors such as the opportunity to detect the disease, the absence of pathognomonic clinical signs, the dispersion of animals in paddocks and, the resistance of vectors to acaricides and variations in population densities of ticks in the localities. Vaccination against many of these diseases is still based on the use of live attenuated (as in bovine babesiosis) or live naturally “avirulent” strains (as in Anaplasma centrale) and development of new prophylactic alternatives is currently under investigation.
There are few prophylactic alternatives for tick-borne diseases in cattle and most of the rely on live attenuated organisms such as Babesia bovis or B. bigemina, or subspecies that are used as live agents such as Anaplasma centrale. Current efforts for new vaccines are based on genomic and proteomic studies including approaches such as DNA vaccines, recombinant proteins known to be involved in host infection, and characterization of the diversity of potential vaccine targets in the pathogen or their relationship with host/receptor proteins. There are still many questions about which are the best vaccines in terms of immunogenicity, preservation, variability. This Research Topic will attempt to collect reviews and current experimental data in the search for new alternatives for the control and immunoprophylaxis of tick-borne diseases targeting the pathogen itself or the tick vector.
Manuscripts to be included in this Research Topic, include the use of new drugs or drugs not traditionally used for the control of tick-borne disease; Reviews and experimental data in new alternatives for the immunoprophylactic control of ticks and tick-borne diseases of known importance in veterinary medicine and particularly or relevance in cattle and other small ruminants.