Are Orienteers Protected Enough against Tick Bites? Estimating Human Exposure to Tick Bites through a Participative Science Survey during an Orienteering Competition

Jonas Durand, Laure Bournez, Julien Marchand, Claire Schmid, Irene Carravieri, Béatrice Palin, Cyril Galley, Vincent Godard, Annick Brun-Jacob, Jean-François Cosson and Pascale Frey-Klett
Additional contact information
Jonas Durand: Tous Chercheurs Laboratory, UMR 1136 ‘Interactions Arbres Micro-Organismes’, INRAE—Lorraine University, Centre INRAE Grand Est-Nancy, F-54280 Champenoux, France
Laure Bournez: Nancy Laboratory for Rabies and Wildlife, The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES), F-54220 Malzéville, France
Julien Marchand: CPIE Champenoux, F-54280 Champenoux, France
Claire Schmid: Nancy Laboratory for Rabies and Wildlife, The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES), F-54220 Malzéville, France
Irene Carravieri: Tous Chercheurs Laboratory, UMR 1136 ‘Interactions Arbres Micro-Organismes’, INRAE—Lorraine University, Centre INRAE Grand Est-Nancy, F-54280 Champenoux, France
Béatrice Palin: Tous Chercheurs Laboratory, UMR 1136 ‘Interactions Arbres Micro-Organismes’, INRAE—Lorraine University, Centre INRAE Grand Est-Nancy, F-54280 Champenoux, France
Cyril Galley: CPIE Champenoux, F-54280 Champenoux, France
Vincent Godard: Department of Geography, Université Paris 8, UMR LADYSS CNRS, F-93200 Saint-Denis, France
Annick Brun-Jacob: Tous Chercheurs Laboratory, UMR 1136 ‘Interactions Arbres Micro-Organismes’, INRAE—Lorraine University, Centre INRAE Grand Est-Nancy, F-54280 Champenoux, France
Jean-François Cosson: UMR BIPAR, INRAE, F-94700 Maisons-Alfort, France
Pascale Frey-Klett: US 1371 Laboratory of Excellence ARBRE, INRAE, Centre INRAE Grand Est-Nancy, F-54280 Champenoux, France

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-19

Abstract: Mass-participation events in temperate forests are now well-established features of outdoor activities and represent high-risk activities regarding human exposition to tick bites. In this study we used a citizen science approach to quantify the space–time frequency of tick bites and undetected tick bites among orienteers that participated in a 6-day orienteering competition that took place in July 2018 in the forests of Eastern France, and we looked at the use and efficacy of different preventive behaviors. Our study confirms that orienteers are a high-risk population for tick bites, with 62.4% of orienteers bitten at least once during the competition, and 2.4 to 12.1 orienteers per 100 orienteers were bitten by ticks when walking 1 km. In addition, 16.7% of orienteers bitten by ticks had engorged ticks, meaning that they did not detect and remove their ticks immediately after the run. Further, only 8.5% of orienteers systematically used a repellent, and the use of repellent only partially reduced the probability of being bitten by ticks. These results represent the first attempt to quantify the risk of not immediately detecting a tick bite and provide rare quantitative data on the frequency of tick bites for orienteers according to walking distance and time spent in the forest. The results also provide information on the use of repellent, which will be very helpful for modeling risk assessment. The study also shows that prevention should be increased for orienteers in France.

Keywords: tick; citizen science; tick-bite exposure; prevention; Ixodes ricinus (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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