Increased morbidity of population by tick-borne infections under technogenic environmental contamination

Abstract

In recent years (2003-2013) in the Republic of Belarus there is a growth in the number of ticks and their contamination with tick-borne encephalitis and Lyme borreliosis. Ticks I. ricinus collected along highways have the anomalies of development (damaged exoskeleton). It is connected with the action ions of heavy metals on ticks, the most of toxic is cadmium. Cadmium is contained in the emissions of motor transport and pollutes the soil at a distance of 300 m from the highway. Abnormal ticks infected with the spirochete (Borrelia spp.) by 1,7 times more often than normal ticks.