Swiss ticks are more dangerous than previously thought. Researchers have found viruses or bacteria in almost every tick, according to a study published on Monday. This includes the Alongshan virus (ALSV), which was discovered only a few years ago.
“Almost every tick can potentially make you sick,” says virologist Cornel Fraefel from the University of Zurich (UZH), who was involved in the study, when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency. “We found multiple pathogens at the same time in many ticks.”
The researchers extracted RNA and DNA from more than 10,000 ticks and looked for viruses. The ticks were also tested for various bacteria using PCR. The results were published on Monday in the journal “Plos One”.
ALSV was found in almost twice as many ticks (7.6 percent) as the well-known tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBE virus) (4.2 percent). About 77.2 percent of ticks also tested positive for at least one non-viral pathogen. (sda)
Source: Blick
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