Zoonoses in a global changes context: the case of Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus in the Autonomous Province of Trento

Changes in climate, land use and biodiversity are considered among the most important anthropogenic factors affecting parasites-host interaction and wildlife zoonotic diseases emergence. Transmission of vector borne pathogens are particularly sensitive to these changes due to the complexity of their cycle. In general, reported cases of vector-borne infections have increased during the last 30 years in the northern hemisphere (Semenza and Suk, 2018) and in Europe, the most challenging infections include tick-borne transmitted diseases such as Lyme borreliosis (LB) and Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) with an average number of 85.000 and 16.000 cases reported annually, respectively. Tick-borne Encephalitis (TBE) is a zoonosis of public health relevance in many European countries. It is a neurological zoonotic infection with various degrees of severity, which is transmitted by a tick directly with a bite or indirectly by consuming raw milk from infected hosts. In Italy, the incidence of TBE is relatively low and the occurrence of human cases is geographically restricted to the pre-alpine and alpine regions in the north-eastern part of the country. More studies are necessary to understand the complex factors that are involved in the maintenance and circulation of TBE. We present the current situation in the Province of Trento where the number of human cases increased and the endemic focus moved northward under the light of global changes.