Launched in 2017 by Inrae in partnership with the Ministry of Health, the Signalement Tique application has received over four years 56,000 reports of tick bites across the country (humans and animals combined), making it possible to obtain an increasingly precise map of the areas most infested with ticks, INRAE has just announced in a press release.
Tick reporting: how does it work?
“Tick Report” is an application that allows scientists to quickly report tick bites, whether they are spotted on a human or an animal, via a smartphone or a computer. When you report a bite you specify:
- The date and place of the bite
- The number of implanted ticks and the areas of the body bitten
- The type of environment and the reason for your presence on the premises (leisure or work)
- The pictures of the sting and tick
After the report, you imprison the tick in absorbent paper and you slip it into an envelope, accompanied by the report number, the date and the place of bite before sending everything to the laboratory All researchers (see address below ).
Thanks to all the shipments made over the past 4 years, the laboratory has received more than 35,000 ticks which have been archived in the only French “tiquothèque” of biting ticks, and more than 2,500 ticks have been analyzed.
Ticks invaded private gardens
This made it possible to discover in particular that tick bites do not only occur when going out into the forest or in wooded and humid areas, but also in parks and, increasingly, in private gardens. “While between 2017 and 2019, 28% of people had declared having been bitten in a private garden in France, the rate of declaration of bites in this place rose to 47% between March and April 2020 on the entire metropolitan territory” insists Inrae.
To better understand the risk associated with the presence of ticks in gardens, understand the characteristics of these gardens and identify whether these ticks are carriers of pathogens, researchers will launch a new project, called TIQUoJARDIN. Residents of Nancy and neighboring towns who volunteer will receive sampling kits that will allow them to analyze the ticks that have colonized the gardens, and the possible pathogens they carry.
#RP_INRAE ➕56,000 reports of bites #Ticks in France in 4 years, 47% in the gardens during the #confinement in 2020 new results @ci_ticks and focus on proximity risk #citizenscience#public health#lyme
▶️https://t.co/mFfkvE7ZX4pic.twitter.com/4DMFk8Mxxq— INRAE (@INRAE_France) April 27, 2021
- To download Tick Report: on Android: http://www.citique.fr/android and on iPhone: http://www.citique.fr/ios
- To send the ticks that bit you : Laboratory for all researchers, CiTIQUE program, Inrae Grand-Est Nancy center 54280 Champenoux
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