In order to perfect knowledge about Lyme disease, the French are invited to report tick bites using the “Signement Tique” application, available since 2017, and which now has more features.
- Two years of collection on Lyme disease have made it possible to better understand the disease.
- We now know that the disease is mainly caught in the spring and fall or that 15% of ticks analyzed in mainland France carry the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease.
- A new version of the app is available to better guide people who have been bitten and provide more information for researchers.
Since 2017, an application, “Tick report”, was launched by the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) to improve knowledge and prevention of Lyme disease. “These are data that cannot be collected in any other way”, explained Jean-François Cosson, veterinarian and health ecology specialist at INRA. Since its launch, 23,500 bites have been reported across France and 20,000 ticks have been sent to the laboratory”All Researchers” of the Inrae Center (National Institute for Agronomic Research) in Nancy, the first and only participatory library in France.
Two years of collection
This participatory science program, named CiTIQUE, has allowed researchers to learn more about ticks and the diseases associated with them, including Lyme disease, which is difficult to diagnose. “Valuable analytical supportsays microbiologist Pascale Frey-Klett, director of research at Inrae who launched this program with Jean-François Cosson, at 20 minutes. There are many species of ticks in France. The initial idea of this program was to know which ones sting the most, who do they sting, in particular in humans or animals, but also to analyze their content in infectious agent.”
In two years of data collection, the researchers managed to draw up a map of the risks of tick bites in France. We now know that spring and autumn are the periods most at risk for bites, or that 15% of ticks analyzed in mainland France carry the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease. “In other words, they are everywhere in France, and not only in certain regions, as some people think”, says Pascale Frey-Klett. The reports also highlighted “the risk of being bitten in public gardens and parks, and not only when hiking in the forest, as is too often thoughtadds the researcher. Moreover, we have recorded an increase in reports of stings in private gardens during confinement..”
A new more complete version
The research is far from over, and to go further, the participatory program has acquired a new application with more practical functions for users and more useful for researchers. Users can create several profiles — for different family members —, follow the history of reports, report a bite even offline, or benefit from information on prevention and post-bite follow-up. “In addition, from July, a new modality will allow users to report outings during which they have not been bitten.continues Pascale Frey-Klett. It is also information that counts to perfect our mapping of the risk of stings in France..”
After long months of work, the SIGNALEMENT TIC application has had a facelift thanks to the support of our partners, in particular @CPIE Nancy Champenoux and #FoundationGroupama : https://t.co/sy9vtjZVcw. New features for users and researchers to discover! pic.twitter.com/Mu2pgZ2u41
— CiTIC (@ci_ticks) May 18, 2020
Among the gray areas that still need to be clarified are the different bacteria carried by ticks. The borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease, is just one such pathogen. “Ticks can carry other bacteria, but also parasites, such as babesia, which we are starting to talk about more and more, or even viruseslist Pascale Frey-Klett. There can also be co-infections, where a tick can infect the bitten person with several pathogens at the same time.” Another point of interest to researchers is the risk that pets can represent. “It has been observed that the increase in reports of bites in dogs and cats begins three to four weeks before the increase in reports in humans, which could make these pets good sentinels.”says Pascale Frey-Klett.
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