Session three is vectors, vector disease and global changes, ticks and leishmaniasis. A paradigm of the future of Europe. That is a fascinating topic and we've got an excellent speaker sio Figlio qualified in veterinary medicine at the University of Turin in 1992.

He then gained his phd in epidemiology and control of zoonosis at the University of Bologna in 1997. He currently works as a full professor of parasitology and parasitic diseases at the University of Turin. And since 1999 it's been involved in all sorts of research projects involving parasites, wildlife diseases of public health interest and regularly hold seminars on these topics.

Well, including this one. It's also published lots of scientific papers on different parasites, neos, pra leishmania, multiple nematode species, so wonderfully qualified to speak on this topic. So over to you, Etsy.

OK. Thank you for for your introduction. I hope to be at the height of your expectation.

OK. So first, I I have to say there is an error in the title because it is not Global Changes, but I prefer to say global changes and we will discuss this during my presentation, it will be a short presentation just trying to look through and hold on what really happens because I will discuss with you some practical things that occurred here in Northwest of Italy. But are a paradigma or what has happened in the last decades.

And what will can happen in in the future when we speak about la mania. We forget to say there is not la mania, but there are least mania. There are more than one species of the genera.

There are a lot we are interested in them just partially because because one of them is man in Phantom affected dogs. Other animals we will see later but can also be transmitted to, to human. But he is a great problem in veterinary medicine and it is transmitted by sun fly.

This mania is like janus. You have two kind of two presentation of the parasite. The one the promastigote that is in the in the vectors or at least in in the sun fly.

And the other is the Amati goat that we can find in, in the vertebrate hosts. But why the parasites have these those two different forms? Because li mania when it is at at this top, it is in the sun fly.

And for li mania, the sun fly is a wonderful estate, a wonderful place to stay. It is 20 mi L we have a flagellum. So really happy to be within the sun fly.

But the problem is sun fly are not all over the country all over the year. There are some months where sun fly are not available. So Lisanne have two become a survival, a survival species that try to survive in some I can say shelters in some survival shelters and the survival shelter for Liz Mania when there are not and fly are vertebrae, dogs or humans and vertebrate are not just like needles, they are not like courier that pick up the parasite from one side but transport to the other.

But there is a lot of interaction among the parasite vector but also regarding the transmission of the pathogen because we know that the mm what we are using to call vectors can inject into the vertebras, for example, salivary antigens that can help the parasite to invade the to to add to the os imuna response. And it is a, a matter that could be really interesting for us. But as sun fly are the the the place where Liman wanted to stay, what are the things that sun fly like the most?

It is sunny place, they like sunny place, they fear, they hate cold places. So it is why Liz Mania is used to be reported in the tropical area or in the subtropic or in the coal area but not in continental area. This is the the distribution of Lisbon cases in in dogs in the northwest of I I in Italy.

And you can see that in the northwest of Italy, there are no sun fly. LA sun fly at all. There are just some cases in dogs in this coastal area that is a very hot cold area near the Cote d'azur in in France.

But in the whole water part of the north of Italy, there are no li mania, no sun fly. And we are sure for this because this is a map of Sun Fly capture in the seven in the 70 from from Italy and all these dots here in the Northwest tested negative at the time. So we are used to say, you know, we are we are cuing my cuisine is used to say no martini, no party.

And I am used to say no Sun fly, no mania. But at the end of the nineties, more or less in the middle 1996 1997 we start to see some dogs that seems to to have la mania but seems to have to be out tous n near Turin here. And so we start to search also for San Fly.

And in 1998 we start to find San Fly in Turin. We moved to, to the hills near Turin to Houston and we find Sun Fly also in that spot. So we believe, ok, probably sunfire arrived in, in the last years, we have to move north at the border with the Ausa Valley.

The Ausa Valley is here and we was able to find Sun Fly. Even in the car, we tried to move in the full AOTA valley. And in 1999 we found 20% of sampling station positive for sandfly.

So this means that in 2030 years, San Fly have become auto tous in the northwest of Italy. And nobody realized this and it is not just a matter of the northwest of Italy as we start to monitor for sandfly. And for our cases only is Mania in all of the north of Italy.

And at this in 25 2005 05, we was able to find San Fly and the cases of Las Mania in all the area in the north of of Italy, in the low part of the mountains and in the mountains in, in the hills of the upper and now Les Mania is spreading in rather new municipality positive in the last 1015 years. And as you can see, it is spreading a lot not only in the low part of the mountains or in the hills, but also in the plains in all the region of of the north of Italy. And this is the dynamic of sand fly.

You can see they start even in the north in, at the end of May early of June, they reach a peak in middle, second part of July and they will decrease until the end of August. All those sun fly are sun fly that was born the previous summer and spend the winter as four in star larvae in in the soil. And we have a second peak in September.

All this one are sun fly that was born from eggs. She did in the early months of June. But you know, we are used to say that 15 degrees is the temperature that allows adults and fly to, to fly.

And really when the mean temperature decrease below 15 degrees, we start to do to to don't find sun fly and we start to add them when the temperature was higher than 15 degrees in during the night. So we have generally only one main peak of sandfly abundance and it is related mainly to sun fly that was born the previous year and survive. You can see them here are four larvae in there in the soil and in the same area, you can see 2001 to 2, a 2002 as the winter temperature decrease, we have a de a de a de a decrease also in sun fly density in the following summer because more cold winter, more fruits, winter, more larvae will die during the winter.

And so will be less less sun fly the following su summer. But we more the call before spoke about climatic change as the temperature has increased a lot. Mainly in winter.

Now, sun fly. Don't have to fear to, to die by cold, in, in winter. But it is not a matter of, climatic changes.

It is a picture everyone can take in, in a public park in every place of, of Europe, plenty of dogs. And it is, from the, the middle of the 17 when only noble people can have a pet animals. 150 years ago, more or less, we start to have the kennel and we start to have a dog show.

So even people that have now more money are interested in having a dog, not as a working dog, but as a pet animal, display of how you rich you are. And nowadays everyone, even the son of university professor can have the pet dog. But we are, we, we usually don't, are we think that it is due to social changes and it is for sure due to social changes.

But if nowadays everyone can have a dog in the home and the dogs have moved from this farm to our sofa, our home to our beds. It is fence to parasitologist because we was able to fight ectoparasite, mainly fleas like this one, nobody will, will sleep with a dog with fleas because this is what you, you can find on your cell. When you wake up in in the morning and even we was able to control ticks, but we move our dogs, Yang presented the the movement of animal problems.

But when we move, even ourselves with the dogs, we can bring up, bring up to, to home back sun fly because sun fly can enter in in your car when you travel in endemic area and they can leave the car when you are back home. But also our dog can become infected or we can move dogs from infected area that are infected by, by mania. So we can bring both the, the the vector and both the parasite from endemic area to new area.

It means we was able to build our own Troian or go to, to IKEA and this has led Liz Mania to spread to, to northern country. And this is the the risk of importing dogs from Mediterranean area to to continental area. So you can see how many but this was already discussed by, by Morgan, by Bayan.

But another things that have changed a lot is not that we have more dogs than in the past. But in the past, dogs are rural dogs. Imagine this is a farmer area.

So plenty of farms and in every farms, there are some dogs that this dot here is 200 m and it is usually the distance, the maximum distance that female sun fly can can move. And so it means it will be really difficult for a sun fly. Pick up a blood meal from this dog infected dog and transmit the parasite to other dogs because they are farther than 200 m.

But it was the situation that we have 5060 years ago. Nowadays, we have changed it. Not only we have more dogs but dogs are no more rural working dogs.

They are urban dogs. They live in environments such as this one, every home have a small garden in every garden, there is a dog but the distance from this dog and this one is 200 m. So if we put one infected dogs here and the r sand fly, the risk of transmission of the parasite to or other dogs within the 200 m meters radius is really high.

And it is why theia has become a really big problem in many parts of of Europe. We discuss about dogs. But what about wild animals?

Nomadic knows about them. We are used to say that dogs are the the the reservoir of the infection. And that when we find las mania in wild animal, it is a spillover from dogs because dogs are the main reservoir.

If we think the dog is the main reser, when we search in wildlife, we search in carnivores, it means mainly foxes and we do in many parts. We have done many works in the past. And every time we have found infected animals in every car animals, red foxes, wolves, lynxes, polecat, Janet, and so on.

But the mania is, teach us a lot of things. One of these is we are changing our world, the world has changed and it affects also our e it is really a one e approach needed because because in 2007, in 2009, colleagues from Madrid published this paper reporting that in 2006 and 2007, there is an emerging trend in the c prevalence of canine mania is in the region of Madrid in the Central Spain. And at the end, they was not able to, to explain why there is this increase in Li Mania in those in that area.

But at the same time, there is also an increase in human cases in in the year previous to 2009, there are 1525 human cases in the area. Since 2009, the the the human cases jumped to 101 150 the twe in 2009, 2010, 1112. And every year it is the same.

And Fen Labrada, I it is the place of 20 kilometers from the center of Madrid was the place where there is this bigger amount of human cases. And not only in cases in dogs in Liz Mania and nobody understand why until colleagues start to, to search for a solution. And then the response was this, the hair are sylvatic reservoir of Lisman in Phantom, in Spain.

So earths are able to maintain the parasite and to infect sun fly when they take the blood mill and sun fly, that take the blood mill from earths are able to transmit the parasite to other earths, to other animals. And we try to find to search Liz Mania in her from all the climatic region of Spain from sample that has been collected from 2004 and 2010. So before the the the official facade from Madrid, and we was able to find positive air in every continental region of Spain.

And it is not only in Spain, it is also in in other parts and clearly sun fly when they can prefer to take the blood meal on hair on rabbit, respect to dogs and human. But when we breed sun fly in the labs, we breed them on rabbit feces. If I want to search, if there are sand fly in one area.

The first spot I will search are places where there are rabbits. Imagine for a sandfly, take a blood meal on the rabbit here. So we know this but we was not able to say hey, could be rabbits could be hairs, could be logo morph a problem for Liz Mania.

And we was not able to to think in that way. Until the, the, the problem arise in, in the Madrid area. And hers are a positive airs are a problem in every place in Greece.

25% in other places. And it is from Italy. We have not only European brown hairs or wild rabbits, but we have also Easter cotton tails that have been introduced almost 60 years ago from North America.

And you can see almost, 27% of Easter Eastern cotton tiles are positive for for Lisp mania. And so we have moved dogs from urban area to to to from rural area to urban area to natur ban area such as one, this one is the area of Puel la brada or, or the fai where there are probably till now more than 1000 human cases and this one of the solution. So to kill 30,000 wild rabbits for trying to stop the the epidemics, but it was unsuccessful because it is like treating a broken leg with with aspirin.

And it is not just a problem of logo morph, even rodents can be a problem because we search for for Lisp Mania in the Isle of Monte Cristo. It is here in the middle of nowhere and we was able to find 15% of black rats that are positive for for Lisp Mania. So not only the dogs can be a reservoir of Lisp mania, but also wild animals and not o not only carnivores but also lagomorphic and the risk of transmission from animals to humans could not be neglected because you can see in in red are do cases.

The number is the the number of the strain. But you can see and in blue in.in blue are the human cases.

But you can see that in many cases, dogs and human share the same strain of the parasite and the same stain of the parasite can be shared among dogs while the animal hair, cotton tile and humans or among foxes and humans and so on. So this means that there is really a continuous risk of transmission of las mania from wild to do animals to dogs or and to humans. So what we can do what we can do to stop sand fly.

It will be not so easy. They are not mosquito, we cannot spray the environment because they don't, don't say in in water, they stay in the larvae, stay in the soil. So it is very difficult.

We have to spray everywhere as we do in the sixties. But nowadays, it is no more possibilities, not a from the ecological point of view. So we cannot build a barrier because we cannot spray and we cannot protect an our animal during the night with with nets.

And even diptera can find us because we, they smell us by our s and they are when they are near us, they recognize us by the CO2 and choose the place where to take the blood meal, where there is the highest relative humidity and highest temperature. Because it means you have vessels on Dessel face and you have soft skins. So you have a lot of perspiration.

So we can try to, to mimicry ourselves. And we do this with repellent. Repellents are highly volatile.

So they mask our order. But what we do, but it the the problem is they are highly volatile. So it means they last for a, for a few hours.

So what we use, we use the anti feeding e effect. So it is the anti feeding effect. It is like trying to, to pack your garage in this way.

If you pack your garage in this way, your neighbor will respect you more and we can use anti feeding effect of pyros in a different way with spry with spot on or we will with protective band. And we use then using two approach. The first one, they have the anti feeding effect.

So they will reduce the number of sunlight that will take the blood mill from at least 80%. So there is a decreased risk of the the the infection of dogs. So we try to protect not infected dogs, but we have to use pyros even in positive dogs because because we can reduce by 80 90%.

The numbers on sandfly dictate the blood meal on dogs. So that can become infected. But also many of the sandfly dictate the blood meal come in contact with the PTOs.

So we'll die within 24 44 48 hours. So we'll stop the spread of the infection. And we know this very well.

It is more than 25 years. We know this. And if we use pure throws in the proper way, we will reduce not only the risk of transmission to, to dogs but also to humans.

And nowadays someone suggested the use of systemic insecticide for phlebotomy vector control. It could be used but not because you want to protect your dogs because the sun fly take the blood meal, they die after having taken the blood meal, but you can use them in a positive dogs because even if sun fly take a blood meal, in spite of the PTOs, it will die due to the systemic antiparasitic drug. So it is one way we can have to reduce further the transmission as a way is to vaccine the dogs because vaccinated dog have a low parasite in in blood.

So there is a decrease in the san fly that will become infected and also in the number of lisp mania that the sandfly will transmit at the following part. And it is a good way because even human medicine is thinking to use iso for the control of vector borne disease in human. In that case for for malaria, for example.

But the other cases that is nice for me to, to treat are ticks. Ticks are a big problem. Previous speaker discuss about them ticks are very strange animal.

They take the blood meal at every life stage as larvae as n or as adult. They take blood meal as larvae name for for molting in names and adult they take, take the blood mills as adult to, to produce eggs that will be shedded in the environment. And the life of A T is a long life.

IOS can take six year to close the cycles. But now, as Morgan said, we can have a, the, the, the the world cycle from larvae to adult females during the same year. And one of the problem of of ticks when they are questing when they stay, the environment is digit rotation.

So they can take fluids but they can take just by, by the blood mill but they will lost water. And it is why, for example, io theus is usually call it the, the, the wood ticks because it is in the wood in more humid area where it can lose less weight, water and can survive more time in in the environment. We are used to, to say I see a tick on the dogs but it's really difficult because it is a larvae.

So you can see really small on your hands. I believe almost impossible to find this larvae in a dogs. This is an in clearly greater than the larvae but even difficult to, to find.

And this is an adult t more easy to see and to find not only on humans but mm, especially on, on your dog. Some years ago, we have carried out a national survey on exotics on privately owned dogs in, in Italy. Thanks to the help of colleagues with more than 150 cabinets from 64 provinces and 17 regions from all across Italy.

We have enrolled more than 2000 dogs and 45% of them have at least one ticks and we have collected more than 2005 and 400 ticks. And later, I will show you the, the result from this. But the first interesting point of this is we was able to find ticks in dogs, not only in spring, summer and autumn, but also in winter.

And the other point as Morgan said, when, what, what changes is not only the temperature during the year, but also the rain. For example, you can see that in 2016, we have a lot of peaks even in May, June, July and August respect to 2017 where the peaks almost stopped in July and August, but it is because of rain, it rained a lot in June and July in 2016. So we have a lot of humidity in the environment.

And so peaks was active even in July and August in 2017, it rained a lot on April and May. So we'll have teaks. It is cold, it is hotter but humid in April May and June.

So we have active teak in search in the environment and the number of teak active tak will decrease in June and July. But it is the number of active active t ticks are present but they are not searching the o because it is too dry for them. We was really surprised to find ticks in winter baths, but it is a national survey.

So we have moved and we have asked to call from five cabinets in the Alps and the in the mountain of the Apennine to search for pigs and dogs and cats every month of the year, we asked them to search at least 10 dogs and 10 cats every month. And this is the result we was able out of 2000 dogs and more than almost 70 cats, we was able to find pigs every month of the year, even in winter, even in cabinet in the Alps. So it means the risk of finding pigs in cats or in dogs is really high, even in the alps cannot be neglected.

And another point, the vast majority of ticks that that colleagues was able to find in dogs and they are searching for ticks in dogs are adults and imagine how could be impossible to find larvae in dog. So what we can find in dog and cat in our study is really just the tip of the iceberg. And when we search for the species of ticks, the vast majority of them are exodus.

But even we can found rice phus, not only in dogs but also in in cats and the places where it is more easy to find. Ticks are the head, the neck, some cases, the muscle and the back of the dogs. And as Morgan said, there are some risk factor.

The first one is that the kind of hair of the dogs, longhairs dogs are a greater risk than shorthaired breeds. And the other is the lifestyle those that live in gardens or can roam in rural and wild area are really at greater risk than those that stay in the city. And another important things in many cases, we found exodus exons that is the edge hog ticks.

So even dogs that stay in the garden are at risk because in many cases, and it is my own personal experience when you maintain your dogs in the garden, when you find ticks in many cases that are Ixodes exons bring by, by the hedgehog and could be useful to, to treat the dogs to prevent them from ticks. Yes, it was, it was really great if you take a look it seems that oral formulation works better than collars or Sputum. But it is not because they are more effective than collars or Sputum.

It is simply because it is, it is more easy for, the owner to use them in a proper way. The problem with spot on is not that it doesn't work when, because when we carry out a survey and our vets that, the treat the dogs, they work really fine. The problem with spot on is the owner that don't use in the proper way that put it on the coat of the animal and not on the skin and don't respect the, the, the treatment time recommended and the same could be for for the callers.

So one important things is to let the owner to understand how the way you s you, you use the drug works and that you have to, to use the proper drug in the proper way if you want to be successful and not, don't fail in protecting your dogs. And when we search for for parasite in all those 2400 ticks, we found on those, these are the parasite we was able to find. So in many cases, babesia and Hilaria are the parasite more, more easily found.

And after that, Anaplasma Ehrlichia, in some cases, borea. But the the interesting things is Bian is the most prevalent pathogen in ticks collected from dogs, followed by anaplasma tais and means anaplasma Andia and later by, by borella. But if you look at babi, dog related Basia, so it means Babis, bogali and Babis canis are really less than 1%.

The vast majority of ticks o of babesia species that can be that can be found on ticks collected from dogs are babesia related to wildlife. And in some cases such as bia venator and Basia miti, they are zoic parasites so can infect also humans. It doesn't mean that dogs are observer of those parasite, but that dogs can be a sentinel of the risk even for human beings.

And it is not so so strange because if you look for babesia or a pathogen or rop plasma in wolves in foxes or in badgers, we can find really high percentage of the infection. And if you look bia, it is wonderful because almost 90% of foxes and badgers in Northwest of Italy are positive for Bia. Wolves are just 40% but you know, the wolves are social animals, they do grooming so they pick up ticks from each other and this will decrease the risk of transmission of Babic.

That is the parasite that take the longest time of transmission. But on the contrary, if wolves pick up ticks from other animal can ingest the ticks. And this explain why wolves have the highest prevalence of a pathogen.

So dogs that pick up ticks from their mate, reduce the risk of transmission of babbi but become at risk of a pathogen by themselves. And this is a map of Italy. When in red, there are species of BBI that are zoic and you can see in a lot of provinces, there are species of bia zoic and in shaded gray, they are both zoic and dog related B bia adding green, only dogrel bia.

And it is really show that dogs can be a sentinel of the risk of trans of transmission of zoonotic bia to, to humans. And it is true for BIA here in the left, but also for Anaplasma and Alicia here in in the right. And it is really true because when we search for a pathogen in tick collected from from humans, at the in the hospitals, we can find 30% of ticks that are positive for babia.

And when we was able to find the name to name the babesia, I it was Babis venator. So the zoic species and followed by, by Riki. And again, in the same area, we have surveyed hunters, dogs, wildlife and pigs collected from the environment.

And you can see that piroplasm have the highest prevalence in the environment in wildlife, but also in dogs and the hunters. And it is true also for anaplasma borea and riquet, a spotted fever group. So why we have so many t we are used to say that it is due to, to the human action.

It is due to the fact that we have the forest of the lands. We, we change the use of the lands, we use more of the lands. And this bring wild animal to stay more in contact with us.

But it is not true. At least in Europe, it is through the reverse. It is the same area in 19 50 in 2000, you can see in 50 years, we have abandoned the mountain, no cultivation.

So it means a lot of wood and this means a lot of wild animal would be really nice to see from your windows, rode grazing in the middle on the other side of the fence of your home. But it is possible just because 50 years ago where you can see the woods, these are pastures and we can see here the meadows, they are crops, there are crops. So we abandoned the land and wild animal have come back.

But if you have a deer, you have ticks and if one adult female ticks, one is less like this, one can produce, can shed more than 105 1500 or 2000 eggs. So it will be not so strange in 15 minutes of dragging on the other side of the fence, you can pick up one more than 100 ticks and in the t there are pathogen. So there is a risk also for human because it is true.

No martini, no party but no rode, no ticks, but no ticks, no babi. And now we have a lot of them and you can see here when you move and you pass in a place where there is, a larva for si you can pick up tens and tens of ticks in very a couple of meter and maybe even less. So, I am used to say sometimes at the end of the rainbow, you can no more find a bow full of gold, but you can pick up 100 of ticks and will be a risk even for some species like the alpine marmot because because ticks have moved even in the, in the mountain 20 years ago, we have ticks.

We, we don't have ticks, about 900 m in the house. Now we have ticks up to 2000 m in the alps. And two summers ago, we found the first positive marmots for bia and nobody know what will happen when bia meet the marmots.

And this picture is, really for me, interesting because it is a t it is a coat of a wolf, but it is a wolf road killed in Turin in January. So 30 years ago, nobody will imagine you can have wolves that can be road killed in in the city of Turin. And nobody can imagine you can find active ticks in winter.

But things have changed due to those local changes, not only climatic changes and now this is a risk. So our dog are a risk, not only in spring, summer or autumn, but in some cases, even in winter, even if probably not when there is, a lot of snow and the field is covered by snow. But one important thing is how we can find ticks and ticks borne pathogen.

Ticks are strange anymore, at least exodus exotics. They will stay attached to the o for a long time, some days for for larvae and the nymph, but up to 10 days for adult females. So the first thing we do when they bite, the host is to attach to the host.

And this will require time. They will inject salivary antigens because they will avoid the immune response. They don't let the host to, to understand there is something that punter them and it is really important for us because it is the time we call the grace period.

So the time that passed from when the, the tick bite, when the tick start to feed and transfer to the o the pathogen. And this grace period is extremely variable, depends on, on the pathogen but can range from 4 to 48 hours. So it depends on the pathogen, several pathogen, different pathogen and different transmission rate.

But the most important things to us is to kill the tick within this grace period because if we kill it or she or better, she, she will no more be able to transmit the pathogen. So when we choose a threat, a treatment, we can use treatment that are repellent or reduce the risk of t jump on the o. But also we have to use drugs that have a caride effect.

So we'll able to kill the tick and kill the tick as soon as possible. So, better under the 12 hours at least, and this will reduce the transmission of the risk of transmission of pathogen. And then the important point is 15 years ago, it is clear what would be wild or natural, what would be rural and what would be urban nowadays, as we said, we have moved to urban environment, we have moved to na urban environment.

So big city, we have a lot of parks and the standard part of the big city that is merged in, in the countryside and this is a big risk because we have an increase of wild animals. So the risk of transmission was really greater what we can do. We can be aware of the situation.

I suggest you to, to check on the SSC A website, the guidelines, we have guidelines on the control of vector borne disease. And for example, regarding las mania, it here, it is clearly stated that using synthetic petro is a great help in reducing the risk of infection of lisp mania. But not only to protect your dogs, but as we showed before, to reduce also the risk of transmission from infected dogs to, to other animal.

And as we have wild reservoir, we have to put all the emphasis on the control on the animal we can control. And it is the domestic animal. It is the dogs and even vaccination is a prevent a prevention strategy that can be used and suggested, but it is not alternative to synthetic periodo, but it must be used every day in combination with synthetic periodo.

That should be the first line. We have in acting against the place mania. And when we control for the active parasite, for example, for for t there are the guidelines and again, we have to, to know better our environment, we co we ne we need to know which are the area more at risk for for the dogs.

Tell those to those area to, to the owner. We have to inspect animal. But moreover, we have to use a car side and knowing what happens in your area, even the epidemiology, it is better probably in many cases to suggest to, to the owner to treat the animal for the whole year using what they can want.

So they can use Potton, they can use systemic. But we have to teach them how to use those drug in a proper way. And we have also modular guidelines that are really useful.

They are really short, couple of pages, everything is reported in that couple of pages, we can use this for teaching to the owner the problem explaining the problem, explaining what happens why we suggest one thing in spite of the other. And there is a wonderful things in the guidelines that are the fact sheet. And for me, one important point is that the fact sheet in with the essential hygiene measure.

And I believe that every vet have to, to have tens of them on the desk and give them to the owners every time they, they bring their dogs or the cat to the visit because there are all the the information for protecting pets from endo but also from ectoparasite. So it is for fleas, it is for ticks, but it is also for canine la mania. And there is one important point that we must remember is that protecting the e of pets enhance also the safety of the public and preserve the human animal bond because this is really one important part.

We are vets. But we have also, I am used to say a public health, our is a public health job, our job, even when we treat, we prevent we protect animals in many cases, is able to prevent and to protect also human health. And in this way, the human animal bond because more than two and we are used to speak about one medicine.

But more than 250 years ago, the founder of our veterinary school said that there is only one medicine and it is our symbol Krones Kronus is the symbols of many, including the British Veterinary Association. And it is our heritage because it is half human and half animal. And it is really for me, our heritage of being the profession that is more important, more relevant when we speak about one else.

And that's all for us. Thanks for your attention. Thank you here.

That, that was, that was fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. And good, really good to emphasize.

We, we had a comment that I think then disappeared, but you know, that push and pull between forestation and wonderful green spaces. But of course, the ticks and the pathogens that come with it and, you know, perhaps something that we can discuss in the panel later, how we might, you know, balance those two. We have got some questions before we all break for lunch.

So the first one is, should all dogs? I presume this is an endemic countries. Should all dogs be vaccinated against leishmaniasis in the same way as say, rabies?

What, what do you think? No, I I believe not. I it depends on, on your area, for example, even in Italy, it is really completely different from the north, from the south.

Even in the north, there are areas that are more risk than, than the other. And it is, it is our job because we know our area, we know the the prevalence of, of the infection that the season at risk. So dogs that are in an area where the risk is, I should be vaccinated in area where the risk is low.

It is not necessary. Obviously, it is a balance because it depends even on the comprehensive of the owners, If owners have money and is willing. Clearly, vaccination could be or one more help in preventing the risk of of infection in dogs.

Even because one of the problem is in many cases, you don't know that you are in an, in an endemic area because after the first cases, of course, nobody knows you are in an endemic area. Yeah, absolutely. That's, that's a very good point.

Next one is can can animals on treatment for leishmaniasis. Are they still able to spread leash mania with the help of some flies? It is not impossible, but the risk is greatly reduced because there is a low load of parasite in the blood.

And so there is a low risk that the sun fly will take the parasite with the blood meal. So one thing is that for example, has been suggested in, in the past, is treatment of infected dogs in late spring summer in order to reduce the the parasite load in in the dogs but nowadays, there is no need to use those of this approach as we have ant feed the rat periodo that was able to, to stop the transmission better than, than the treatment. No, very good.

Let's see, what does this one, what does this one say? It says oh, this is just a comment on what I was discussing earlier. It says no need to balance green spaces but to use them responsibly prevent, treat ticks on dogs.

Don't let them run around loose in every green space. That's not what these spaces are for. I mean, I think we are to compare to the owners fee, but you imagine the owner thinks, ah, how great I am as an owner that lend my dogs to run freely in the, in the grass in the woods searching for, for smell of wild animals and a and so on.

But, but it is clearly that, the, the, the, the problem for me is that it's not the risk by itself is the fact that people don't perceive the risk. So they don't know the risk of the risk and they put the dog and themselves at risk. I mean, I, I, I have a friend and colleague who will remain nameless in, Lithuania who invited me to come and talk about the risk of tick borne encephalitis virus and then told me he was off to go and do some waste deep fishing, in what sounded like swamp to me and he was taking no, taking no precautions.

He was like, I'll be fine, you know, I'll be absolutely fine. So, I, I think, you know, that getting across that message of, of risk, and ensuring that people and pets have got adequate prevention in place is, is really important. Yeah.

I've got another one here. a, a aside resistance in ticks. Have you got any advice?

I presume in terms of managing it or, or preventing it from happening? Yeah, you know, it, it is not so big problem as it is in, in livestock, mainly in, in sheep or, or or in cattle. But again, it depends, you can use, can use different approach.

For example, I imagine in an area where you have ticks and sun fly, you can use pyros during some part of the year when you have sun fly. So you have to use the anti feeding effect of pyros and you can use systemic drugs, exo alines in autumn, winter and early part of the spring. So I it is your choice.

You can change, the drug can change the the kind of drug so to reduce this risk. But nowadays there is not a big evidence o of this risk. For me, the problem is in many countries.

I am thinking about Italy, the fact that people can buy drugs freely in, in the supermarket, for example, so they can use drugs not properly. I believe this could be one of the problem can, that can bring sooner or later to, to resistance to, to, to caride or insect aside in, in a general way. Yeah.

No. Very good, very good advice. It's a random one is babesiosis in wild animals, lethal.

I don't know. I presume they mean to the wild animals. I'm not sure or just in, in general.

Wonderful question. It is likely mania. Yeah, I imagine, I I maus you study parasitology and during parasitology, your teacher said to you that the definitive host is the one where the parasite have the sexual reproduction, isn't it?

OK. Where Babbi do sexual reproduction in tics. So imagine if you are bia you want to arrive in a tics because you, you have finally sex when you are in the t so the vertebrate is just the parking.

It's just the, the, the, the shelter, the emergency shelter for you. So there is no need for you to, to, to do something that can arm the the problem arise when a new pathogen meet A I A. For example, we have had in the problem of BBI Babia Caprioli in Chamois because because Shamu have never been exposed to ticks and to bicha.

But with the jump of ticks from 900 m to 2000 m. Now, even ticks and Babia Caprioli has arrived in area where there are chamois. So it was one the problem we have faced but usually babesiosis as well as la la mania are not dangerous for wild anymore.

But even Las mania is not so dangerous for cats. We have 30% of cats that are positive for las mania infection. So you can find the parasite if you search it, for example, in spleen.

But we have one or two cases in C in in the whole region every year. So it is a matter, it is a match among the hosts and the pathogen. Sorry, I was gonna say, I mean that that's one of the theories as to why the babesiosis in essex was so lethal, you know, because it just landed in naive dogs.

Yeah. And again, imagine why we have a so big problem linked to Liz Mania because I if you think at the name of 10 breed of dogs, probably all the 10 names that come in your mind are dogs that are continental breeds or come from from UK. So those that never have been exposed to, to, to, to lakes Mania because if we have Iban Groundhog dog or Cherne Delena dogs that are dogs that was born in, in traditional endemic area are thousands of years that stay in the area.

They are resistant to, to the parasite. Yeah. So we have more dogs, we, we let dog to stay more closer each other.

But we bring dogs that are more susceptible breeds because they never meet the parasite. So, it is another really interesting point that in the future we have to, to study better in order to, to be more able in the prevention of the spread of, of infection in, in animal as well as in human. Yeah.

No, no, it's brilliant. It's fascinating, isn't it to see how those interactions have developed? It's, yeah, wonderful.

I think, we're gonna need to leave it there. But thank you. Thank you Etsy.

It was a wonderful presentation. Thank you for your pas.