In France, Lyme borreliosis is the most common tick-borne disease. Throughout the territory, there are about forty species of ticks, the most widespread is Ixodes ricinus and it is she who is responsible for the transmission of Lyme disease. But all of France is not equal in the face of the risk represented by ticks.
On June 5, the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Inrae) launched its CiTIQUE-TRACKER. It is a “tick bite report data visualization” tool for humans or animals. How it works ? “The CiTIQUE-TRACKER tool includes four tabs to highlight several important CiTIQUE results. Analysis of bite report data from the CiTIQUE program shows significant regional and temporal variation, whether between different months of the same year or between different years. This data is updated every month, “explains Inrae.
Between January 2017 and April 2023, 72,141 bites were reported. In detail, 61,220 incidents occurred in humans (28,250 women, 32,286 men and 11,605 people who do not comment) and 10,921 on animals (6,069 dogs, 3,727 cats and 1,125 other animals ). In 48% of the situations, the bites occurred in the forest, 29% in familiar places, 13% in meadows and 10% in other places.
Are all French regions equal in the face of ticks? Not really according to the figures recorded by this platform. Indeed, the Grand Est region has more than 11,500 bites (9,500 on humans and 2,000 on animals) while fewer reports have been made in Corsica. Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur recorded 1,040 reports, 4,300 for Occitanie, 5,300 for New Aquitaine, 8,700 for the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, 5,000 for Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, 2,400 for Centre-Val de Loire, 1,920 for Pays de la Loire. Brittany recorded 3,700 bites, 5,900 for Île-de-France, 2,900 in Normandy and 2,900 in Hauts-de-France. Another learning point is that the majority of bites are reported in children under the age of ten, followed by 31-40 year olds and then 41-50 year olds.
“Through ticks collected since 2017, the CiTIQUE program has shown that 15% of ticks that bite humans carry this bacterium, and 14% carry another pathogen potentially dangerous to human and animal health,” reports Inrae. It is generally between the beginning of spring and the end of autumn that human contamination is most frequent. To limit the risk, it is recommended to cover your arms and legs during an activity carried out in nature.
It is also better to favor marked paths and trails. When you return, it is important to take the time to examine your whole body, that of children and pets. If you have been bitten by a tick, remove it quickly with a tick remover and disinfect the area. Monitor the bitten area for thirty days, see a doctor if you notice a red, round patch appearing around the bite.