[Tick Alert]

Outdoor enthusiasts are being warned about a tick disease in Europe this summer.

The website Tickalert.org has updated its information with more detailed maps of 27 Tick-borne Encephalitis (TBE) endemic countries in Europe and profiles of risk areas for a range of outdoor sports and activities such as hiking, climbing, camping, cycling, mountain biking and horse riding.

Its TBE Travel Check online tool also helps travellers to find out if they might at risk of the disease because of where they are going and outdoor activities planned.

TBE is transmitted within minutes from the bite of an infected tick and causes an average of 13,000 cases needing hospital treatment in Europe and Russia every year. Up to 30% of patients suffer meningitis and in extreme cases it leads to encephalitis (brain swelling) and inflammation of the spinal cord. Two in every hundred people die from the disease.

Ticks lie in wait and crawl unnoticed to a nice warm spot on your body, usually the groin although the armpit is another favourite feeding place. Underwear offers little protection against these blood-sucking pests.

People spending time in the countryside, especially if they are sleeping or walking a lot in grassy areas and undergrowth, need to regularly check their body for ticks and remove any immediately as the moment the tick bites there is the risk you will contract TBE.

Further information on the TBE endemic regions of Europe and latest advice for travellers is available at the website tickalert.org 

[Ru]

Bit more info following a brief panic last year:

The Frankenjura is an encephalitis area and the chances of getting bitten at a crag is pretty high in season (I got two last summer in 2 weeks). Not all ticks carry the disease, and I've never known anyone get it, but the locals are all immunised against TBE. You can get immunised at a travel clinic for about £60, but you must be immunised a few weeks (can't remember how many) before travel.

[tomtom]

Bit more info following a brief panic last year:

The Frankenjura is an encephalitis area and the chances of getting bitten at a crag is pretty high in season (I got two last summer in 2 weeks). Not all ticks carry the disease, and I've never known anyone get it, but the locals are all immunised against TBE. You can get immunised at a travel clinic for about £60, but you must be immunised a few weeks (can't remember how many) before travel.

Any idea how long the jab lasts Ru? Might be worth a shot for £60 ('scuse the pun..)

[Muenchener]

Any idea how long the jab lasts Ru? Might be worth a shot for £60 ('scuse the pun..)

What I and my family had, and is normal over here, was a series of three jabs, the first two within a few weeks of each other and the third a few months later. Boosters then every three years for kids, five years for adults.

There was a big scare, and therefore a big shortage of the vaccine, a few years ago but it seems to be no problem now.

[Wood FT]

I'm headed to the Frankenjura in a week or so, now I'm worried about ticks... is this high season? I'm too late for the jabs so will just have to be sensible with checks etc.

[bigironhorse]

Don't know about Frankenjura but there seems to be fewer here than there was a couple of months ago. Is the risk of tick borne disease higher in Europe than in the UK? Wear long trousers and tuck them into your socks when your not climbing and on the approach. Make sure you have a decent removal tool and check yourself thoroughly directly after each session.

[Wood FT]

Don't know about Frankenjura but there seems to be fewer here than there was a couple of months ago. Is the risk of tick borne disease higher in Europe than in the UK? Wear long trousers and tuck them into your socks when your not climbing and on the approach. Make sure you have a decent removal tool and check yourself thoroughly directly after each session.

Ta. You should come meet us, Jim (Ram coming too potentially). You appear to be less-broken now.

[bigironhorse]

Don't know about Frankenjura but there seems to be fewer here than there was a couple of months ago. Is the risk of tick borne disease higher in Europe than in the UK? Wear long trousers and tuck them into your socks when your not climbing and on the approach. Make sure you have a decent removal tool and check yourself thoroughly directly after each session.

Ta. You should come meet us, Jim (Ram coming too potentially). You appear to be less-broken now.

Fully repaired mate. First time on an 8 since since April last year a couple of days ago. Fingers crossed everything holds together. Will PM you.

[JohnM]

I had a scare a few weeks ago where I had a couple of days of very bad fatigue and aches. Before that I had been bitten by a lot of ticks over here in Austria so I read into Lymes and TBE. After reading about the potential outcome of the latter I really panicked in case I had contracted that. I even saw a huge billboard by the main road advising people to get the vaccine and realised they were taking it relatively seriously. Anyway, the doctor didn't seem too concerned and was even reluctant to do a blood test (I also had to pay extra to test for TBE). Thankfully, the blood test came back normal and I tested negative for TBE. I also had the first two vaccinations within a three week period and will have another one in spring next year. That should be it for 5 years then. Apparently the number of TBE infections is increasing every year. It is still relatively low, even as a percentage of the exposed population. In Tirol 100 people contracted it last year where 60% were men over 55.

The number of ticks here was insane in spring and early summer. I was getting at least one nearly every time I went out. They seem to have decreased now though which is good and I haven't had one for a few weeks. This might be due to cooler and more unsettled weather making hatching conditions worse, I am not sure.

I still don't know what caused the fatigue I had. It definitely felt unusual and I definitely felt a bit "post-viral" for a few days. I have not had a repeat of it since so hopefully it was nothing to be worried about. Interestingly a person I know had an extensive blood screening and they found that they had had Lymes disease at some point although they never realised it themselves. 

[moose]

The brother of a friend had a very severe case of Lyme Disease, from a tick bite in the Frankenjura (iirc possibly exacerbated by a reaction to medication).  He had chronic fatigue type symptoms for more than a year afterwards - lost a lot of weight and had to take a lot of time off work and any arduous exercise.

[bigironhorse]

The number of ticks here was insane in spring and early summer. I was getting at least one nearly every time I went out. They seem to have decreased now though which is good and I haven't had one for a few weeks. This might be due to cooler and more unsettled weather making hatching conditions worse, I am not sure.

+1

I had about 20 bites during late March to early May plus loads of hikers (about 15 after one session). I've only had 1 or 2 since though I have been more vigilant. I think the hatching conditions idea is probably accurate because they seem to get worse during long dry and warm spells.

[tomtom]

(Poss wrong thread caveat)

SCIENCE shows as it gets warmer - ticks prefer humans to dogs.

Experimental set up is a cage containing a dog, a human and a load of ticks - then see who gets the most....

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/nov/16/study-finds-ticks-choose-humans-over-dogs-when-temperature-rises?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[Oldmanmatt]

Well, I managed to pick up a shed load of Tick bites during an overnight Bivi on Dartmoor, this week.
We’d bivi’d in the woods alongside Becka Brook between Hound Tor and Smallacombe.
I never react to insect bites, it pisses Mrs OMM off no end, that I can sit in a cloud of midges/mozzies and apparently not get bitten, whilst she’s leaping around in a red ,swollen, hellish agony etc etc...

Anyway, I wasn’t fast enough changing to long trousers etc after coming down off the hills. Realised the next day that I had bites all over my legs, but assumed I was having an unusual (for me) reaction to midge bites. Yesterday, three days, many hot tub sessions, showers and a day at Splashdown water park later; I felt a nip at the back of my heel, reached to scratch it and came away with a Tick on my finger.
The bite immediately swelled over a 40mm diameter area, red at first, turning to a dark bruise within a couple of hours.
Mrs OMM badgered me to call the out of hours GP, which turned out to be massively overloaded, so no call back until today.

Anyway, today, bruise had turned yellow already, but bite was swollen and had a lovely, clear, red ring around it. I feel like shit.
Got a call back from the GP about an hour ago, was in the hospital 45 minutes later and have been told there’s no need for serology, it’s a classic presentation (albeit a bit bloody rapid) and am now sat in the car with a three week course of Doxycycline...
Oddly, the 20/30 other bites don’t present as badly, just the one I copped yesterday.

[mrjonathanr]

Hope you feel better soon!

[tomtom]

Shit Matt - that sounds grim - hope the meds do the job.

[SA Chris]

Not good dude. Hope the meds do the job. We've got incredibly anal about thorough checking (in both senses of the word) after any time outdoors.

[Bonjoy]

Nasty! Hope you feel better soon.
Are you sure the other bites are from ticks? It's usual for ticks to stay on for 2-3 days if undisturbed before dropping off.

[Ged]

Well, I managed to pick up a shed load of Tick bites during an overnight Bivi on Dartmoor, this week.
We’d bivi’d in the woods alongside Becka Brook between Hound Tor and Smallacombe.
I never react to insect bites, it pisses Mrs OMM off no end, that I can sit in a cloud of midges/mozzies and apparently not get bitten, whilst she’s leaping around in a red ,swollen, hellish agony etc etc...

Anyway, I wasn’t fast enough changing to long trousers etc after coming down off the hills. Realised the next day that I had bites all over my legs, but assumed I was having an unusual (for me) reaction to midge bites. Yesterday, three days, many hot tub sessions, showers and a day at Splashdown water park later; I felt a nip at the back of my heel, reached to scratch it and came away with a Tick on my finger.
The bite immediately swelled over a 40mm diameter area, red at first, turning to a dark bruise within a couple of hours.
Mrs OMM badgered me to call the out of hours GP, which turned out to be massively overloaded, so no call back until today.

Anyway, today, bruise had turned yellow already, but bite was swollen and had a lovely, clear, red ring around it. I feel like shit.
Got a call back from the GP about an hour ago, was in the hospital 45 minutes later and have been told there’s no need for serology, it’s a classic presentation (albeit a bit bloody rapid) and am now sat in the car with a three week course of Doxycycline...
Oddly, the 20/30 other bites don’t present as badly, just the one I copped yesterday.

Grim.  Hope you feel better soon.

Particularly relevant to you Matt as you're in Torbay, but I climbed at Nudey Cliff yesterday (just near Babbacombe), and on arrival at the crag realised our legs and my dog were completely crawling with ticks.  Managed to clear my legs and get trousers on, and haven't found any since.  Had to give the dog a very close trim when we got home and they were tumbling off her.

I was really quite surprised as I didn't realise there was much in the way of animal vectors in those woods below the coast path, but I won't be going down there wearing shorts again.

[SA Chris]

Creag Dubh near Newtonmore is the worst I've seen - the crag and area around it is inhabited with feral goats.

[battery]

We've got really vigilant with checking every time we go out, especially as the feral children just love running through moors/trees/bracken etc.

Was at Hepburn last week and hubby must have walked through a bush that the rest of us avoided as he was covered but the rest of us were clear. Fortunately got them all off before any had bitten.

[Oldmanmatt]

Thing is, I’m a “life time on the Moors and mountains” sort of person and I’ve not picked up a Tick since I was a kid.
I Bivi frequently and always have.
I got complacent. I knew I should have had repellent on before a summer sleep out in a Dartmoor wood, I should have had the kids lathered in it too and I forgot. I know to change out of shorts before setting up camp, but I didn’t.

I am quite well again today. Yesterday’s crushing fatigue has passed and two hefty doses of Doxycycline in, all my swelling and soreness has faded to minor itching. Now the swelling/rash has gone down, it’s easier to tell midge bite from Tick and it looks like I have 3, possibly 4 Tick bites amongst a sea of midge bites. Still not sure why I reacted to the midge bites, as I said, I usually don’t (which is why I had got a bit complacent about insects and arachnids), especially considering I was on Loratadine for Hay fever anyway. Also, didn’t feel the midge bites for around 48 hours after.
Doctor shrugged and said some sort of medical version of “shit happens”.

I would normally bivi in a head net, in the summer, but I just added a wedge mozzie net to my bergan and have no intention of going onto the Moors without copious amounts of DEET on my legs after February, ever again. Damn it, I’ve been using high factor sunscreen as a habit for a couple of decades now, but not repellent.

[battery]

Shit does indeed happen, and a lifetime of doing it without incident does tend to make one complacent.

Glad you're feeling better, hope that continues. Don't beat yourself up.

On the midge bites and gender, I know they prefer women because of our slightly higher body temp - husband and I often have similar conversations  to you and Mrs OMM it would seem!

[SA Chris]

A friend was doing research about midges and was working on isolating pheromones which they like and dislike in order to develop a repellent but she lost funding and then later got Lyme's Disease (unrelated) so never went back to it. 

[Oldmanmatt]

A friend was doing research about midges and was working on isolating pheromones which they like and dislike in order to develop a repellent but she lot funding and then later got Lyme's Disease (unrelated) so never went back to it.

That sounds like she was the victim of a plot by the M.I.C.

(Midge Illuminati Conspiracy).

[AMorris]

Thought I'd chime in here. There are some useful papers for people to scan over if they are worried about tick-borne disease.

Discussing the spatial distribution of ticks across GB:
https://parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13071-020-04287-9

Although this is only looking at distribution across cattle and sheep farms, the results can be extrapolated to infer general distribution. I am sure we are all well aware of the often fluid boundaries of sheep farms in mountainous areas in particular, and how often we share these areas with them in pursuit of our shared interest, so very relevant to climbers.

Key findings: Tick distribution in sheep farms is much higher than in cattle farms. North Wales, NW England, and NW Scotland are hotspots, with basically everywhere except the tip of Cornwall and SE England bearing a moderate risk of picking up a tick. All unsurprising no doubt.

On Tick Bourne Encephalitis in Europe (and Asia):
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877959X10000956?via%3Dihub

This one is a fairly general look at TBE. But there are some key points which are relevant to this thread. There is only one genus of tick which transmits TBE virus in Europe, Ixodes spp. They are pretty generic looking brown and tan ticks, with no decorative markings on the scutum (the plate near the head). They are also pretty common and widespread.

Key findings: Between 0.1-5% of Ixodes ricinus (deer tick, and amongst the most common species) bear TBE virus in europe. This is dependant on a couple of factors, namely the area and the life stage the tick is at. The more mature the tick (generally size is a good measure of maturity) the higher the likelihood of it harbouring the virus. I. persulcatus appears to have a much higher harbouring rate (up to 37% of ticks), but the distribution is far smaller in Europe, only really existing in colder northern countries, such as Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Russia, and a small pocket in N. Ukraine. As you travel east across russia and into Asia, they are the dominant species, however. In Germany, the further south you go the higher the incidence of TBE.

Proportion of ticks carrying Lyme disease in the UK:
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147957111001287?casa_token=fAVuO8GIwQsAAAAA:KfHAhhXnGwWBdLoWBB4i_3-1CARh1JgDO9i8p__nf9NiuzvgL4IAtrLtFlC_BxXXoP4pZo0

[2] https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/parasitology/article/abs/natural-lyme-disease-cycles-maintained-via-sheep-by-cofeeding-ticks/3CE077B7C3118667FF39EBE2F5082E8A

Key findings: The results here vary, but I suspect this has a great deal to do with the methodological differences. 0.5% of ticks pulled off dogs were positive for Borrelia burgdorferi [1] (B.b, the causative agent of Lyme disease), however between 0.45-2.2% of questing juveniles (larvae and nymphs), and 10.7-22.2% of questing adults tested positive (all data collected 1993-1994 from Cumbrian moorland) [2]. Moreover, up to 26.5% of the adult ticks pulled from sheep were found to harbour B.b, indicating that sheep play a significant role as the reservoir host of Lyme disease (again, unsurprising to all). Judging by the results in the Ogden et al. paper, sheep build up some kind of immunity for B.b, since they reject experimental infection if they have previously had B.b +ve ticks feeding off them, and consequently cannot infect other ticks, with the caveat that ticks feeding very close to each other can still transmit the bacteria to each other. I would say this indicates that young animals act as the primary reservoir host each season, which explains why there is a spike of Lyme cases in early summer.

Hope this helps anyone at all, and wasn't too dry.