Abstract. The transmission of Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus is governed by complex interactions between ticks and hosts and habitat features. So far, the relationship between biodiversity and TBE risk has been scarcely evaluated. Therefore by considering habitat richness as a proxy for biodiversity, Giulia and her team modelled the association between the habitat richness index (HRI) and the distribution of human TBE cases across Europe. They validated their findings at the local scale using municipality data collected in Trento and Belluno provinces, in northern Italy.

Speaker. Giulia Ferrari. She currently works as post-doctoral researcher at the Research Centre of the Edmund Mach Foundation (Trento, Italy). As part of the National Future Centre for Biodiversity (NBFC), she is interested in investigating the relationships between vertebrate hosts, vector ticks and microbial community, to identify the implications on zoonoses occurrence and emergence, particularly in areas highly susceptible to anthropogenic and climatic impacts such as the Alps.

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