Valentina TagliapietraFondazione Edmund Mach - Istituto Agrario San Michele All'Adige | Fondazione Mach · Department of Biodiversity and Molecular Ecology (DBEM)
Valentina Tagliapietra
Master Forestry Science
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Introduction
Publications
Publications (97)
Introduction
Caused by the tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a zoonotic disease that can cause severe neurological symptoms. Despite the availability of a vaccine, it remains a public health concern in Europe, with an increasing number of reported human cases and new hotspots of virus circulation, also in previo...
Background
West Nile virus (WNV) is an emerging mosquito-borne pathogen in Serbia, where it has been detected as a cause of infection in humans since 2012. We analyzed and modelled WNV transmission patterns in the country between 2012 and 2023.
Methods
We applied a previously developed modelling approach to quantify epidemiological parameters of i...
Background
The natural transmission cycle of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus is enhanced by complex interactions between ticks and key hosts strongly connected to habitat characteristics. The diversity of wildlife host species and their relative abundance is known to affect transmission of tick-borne diseases. Therefore, in the current context...
Background
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a disease which can lead to severe neurological symptoms, caused by the TBE virus (TBEV). The natural transmission cycle occurs in foci and involves ticks as vectors and several key hosts that act as reservoirs and amplifiers of the infection spread. Recently, the incidence of TBE in Europe has been risin...
The biodiversity crisis is one of the most critical environmental issue of our time. Species losses affect ecosystem functioning by depriving those services - such as carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling and resistance to drought - on which also humans rely. Among these, control of infectious diseases represents a highly valuable service provided...
Climate can affect tree seed production, which represents the major food resource for several rodent species including Apodemus flavicollis, a very common forest rodent species and an important reservoir for different zoonotic pathogens (as Hantavirus, TBEV and Borrelia burgdorferi s.l) representing an increasing threat for human public health. We...
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is caused by a flavivirus that infects animals including humans. In Europe, the TBE virus circulates enzootically in natural foci among ticks and rodent hosts. The abundance of ticks depends on the abundance of rodent hosts, which in turn depends on the availability of food resources, such as tree seeds. Trees can exhi...
Italy is considered a low-incidence country for tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in Europe. Areas at higher risk for TBE in Italy are geographically clustered in the forested and mountainous regions and provinces in the north east part of the country, as suggested by TBE case series published over the last decade. A national enhanced surveillance syst...
In a global change context, the association between generalists and specialists could be a determinant
of ecosystem stability. This holds particularly true in mountain ecosystems, where the environmental
tolerance of generalists to global warming may lead to their upward distributional shifts, while a
decline is expected in specialists. As a con...
Climate might directly or indirectly affect the population dynamics of several rodent species including Apodemus flavicollis, a very common forest small mammal and an important reservoir for several emerging zoonotic pathogens. We thus investigated how climatic data alone might be useful to predict rodent population dynamics. We used rodent data ga...
Introduction
In a global change context, the association between generalists and specialists could be a determinant of ecosystem stability. This holds particularly true in mountain ecosystems, where the environmental tolerance of generalists to global warming may lead to upward distributional shifts and thus declining of specialists. As a consequen...
How resources are partitioned among sympatric species is conditional to extrinsic (e.g. climate driven) and intrinsic (e.g. demography-dependent) factors. To analyse these effects, we carried out a treatment-control experiment with supplemental ad libitum food accessible to the community of wild rodents, throughout seasons at two latitudinal extrem...
Environmental, climatic and anthropogenic modifications constantly impact worldwide ecosystems resulting in global scale biological responses across all ecological levels (individual, population, species and community). As a consequence living organisms can adapt their niche breadth either via genetic evolution and phenotypic plasticity or through...
The functional role and position of a species within the environment is strongly governed by the interplay between species internal state, abiotic and biotic environmental conditions, as well as by multi-species interactions (predation, competition and parasitism). In this work we have implemented a multi-factorial niche-based approach to evaluate...
Italy is considered a low-incidence country for tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in Europe. Areas at higher risk for TBE in Italy are geographically clustered in the forested and mountainous regions and provinces in the northeast part of the country, as suggested by TBE case series published over the last decade. A national enhanced surveillance syste...
As fast reproducing species, rodents present proximate numerical responses to resource availability that have been assessed by experimental manipulation of food, with contrasting results. Other intrinsic and extrinsic factors, such as climate severity, species life cycles, and sympatry of potential competitors in the community, may interplay to mod...
Among the Apicomplexa parasites, Hepatozoon spp. have been mainly studied in domestic animals and peri-urban areas. The epidemiology of Hepatozoon spp. is poorly investigated in natural systems and wild hosts because of their scarce veterinary and economic relevance. For most habitats, the occurrence of these parasites is unknown, despite their hig...
Purpose
Rodent borne diseases, including those indirectly transmitted by vectors, represent an increasing threat for public health. The provisioning of early warning indicators of the changing hazard is of great utility for the improvement of prevention and control strategies.
Climate can affect tree seed production, which represents the major food...
Introduction:
Emergence of tick-borne diseases is related to host-pathogen-parasite system alterations, which are affected by several factors. In this sense, underlining the mechanisms between environmental heterogeneity, hosts availability and tick burden are of particular interest to understand the circulation of tick-borne pathogens.
Materials...
An unexpected high presence of Mycobacterium microti in wild boar in Northern Italy (Garda Lake) has been reported since 2003, but the factors contributing to the maintenance of this pathogen are still unclear. In this study, we investigated the presence of M. microti in wild rodents and in water and soil samples collected at wild boar aggregation...
Trophic resources strongly shape individual fitness, population dynamics and community structure of small rodents by maintaining energy budget, activity rate and thermoregulation.
To explicitly disentangle the role of food availability against the effect of seasonality on rodent populations, we carried out a treatment-control experiment in a natur...
The development of new diagnostic methods resulted in the discovery of novel hepaciviruses in wild populations of the bank vole (Myodes glareolus, syn. Clethrionomys glareolus). The naturally infected voles demonstrate signs of hepatitis similar to those induced by hepatitis C virus (HCV) in humans. The aim of the present research was to investigat...
Italy is considered a low-incidence country for tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in Europe.1 Areas at higher risk for TBE in Italy are geographically clustered in the forested and mountainous regions and provinces in the north east part of the country, as suggested by TBE case series published over the last decade.2-5 A national enhanced surveillance...
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a severe zoonotic neurological disease endemic in northeast Italy since 1992. In the Province of Trento, a sharp increase in TBE incidence has been recorded since 2012, despite the vaccination efforts. To assess current TBE infection hazard in this area, we applied an integrated approach combining the distribution o...
Porcine circovirus 3 (PCV3) is an emerging virus, first detected in 2016 and widespread in the swine industry. Although not considered a primary pathogen, PCV3 is potentially linked to several clinical conditions that threaten swine farming. Wild boars are considered the main reservoir species for PCV3 infection in the wild, but recent detection in...
People with some occupational or recreational activities, such as hunters and veterinarians, may have increased risk to be infected by the hepatitis E virus (HEV). The aim of the present study was to establish whether forestry workers could be considered at a higher risk of HEV infection than a control group. One hundred and fifty sera from forestr...
Ljungan virus (LV), which belongs to the Parechovirus genus in the Picornaviridae family, was first isolated from bank voles (Myodes glareolus) in Sweden in 1998 and proposed as a zoonotic agent. To improve knowledge of the host association and geographical distribution of LV, tissues from 1685 animals belonging to multiple rodent and insectivore s...
Since it has been understood that gut microbiota of vector mosquitoes can influence their vector competence, efforts have been undertaken to develop new control strategies based on host microbiota manipulation, and aimed at suppressing the vector population or replacing it with a less competent one. For the proper design of such control strategies...
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...
Background – European biomes and specifically boreal-alpine regions are particularly sensitive to climate change impacts because of their distinctive environmental and climatic context. Environmental bioindicators, such as small mammals, are extremely relevant to determine impacts resulting from anthropic and fast occurring global changes. The pres...
Tick-borne encephalitis is an important zoonosis in many parts of north-western, central and eastern
Europe, Russia and the Far East, with considerable altitudinal and latitudinal shifts described during
recent decades. The reported routes of transmission for TBE virus include the saliva-activated
non-viraemic transmission between co-feeding ticks...
In the Anthropocene context, 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, where the tra...
Background
Europe and Italy were declared malaria free since the 1970s although the presence of competent vectors and the high number of yearly imported malaria cases make this disease a potential rising health issue. In September 2017, a cryptic fatal case of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in the Province of Trento, Italy, raised the concern of hea...
Italy is considered a low incidence country for tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in Europe. Areas at higher risk for TBE in Italy are geographically clustered in the forested and mountainous regions and provinces in the north east part of the country, as suggested by TBE case series published over the last decade.
Aedes mosquitoes are considered highly successful global invasive species and vectors of several pathogens of relevance for public health. Their midgut's microbiota can play an important role in affecting not only their vectorial competence but also their fitness, physiology, food digestion, metabolism, immunity and adaptation to new environmental...
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a severe neurological disease caused by the TBE virus (TBEV), a flavivirus transmitted mainly by the tick Ixodes ricinus. TBE has a patchy distribution in natural endemic hotspots. TBEV circulation in the natural environment occurs via three different modes of transmission: vertical transmission (from the infected f...
Rodents play a key role as reservoirs of many zoonotic pathogens which represent an emerging public health threat worldwide. Among these, Dobrava-Belgrade virus (DOBV) is the most pathogenic hantavirus in Europe with a case-fatality rate of up to 12 per cent, while Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) has a mortality rate below 1 per cent. Bot...
Rodent-borne hanta- and arenaviruses are an emerging public health threat in Europe; however, their circulation in human populations is usually underestimated since most infections are asymptomatic. Compared to other European countries, Italy is considered ‘low risk’ for these viruses, yet in the Province of Trento, two pathogenic hantaviruses (Puu...
The incidence of tick-borne diseases caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Rickettsia spp. has been rising in Europe in recent decades. Early pre-assessment of acarological hazard still represents a complex challenge. The aim of this study was to model Ixodes ricinus questing nymph density and its infection rate w...
Emerging rodent-borne viral diseases in Italy: distribution and observed trends in the Province of Trento, Italy
In January 2015, during a 3-week period, 12 captive Tonkean macacques at a sanctuary in Italy died. An orthopoxvirus infection was suspected because of negative-staining electron microscopy results. The diagnosis was confirmed by histology, virus isolation, and molecular analysis performed on different organs from all animals. An epidemiologic inve...
The aim of this study was to determine the occurrence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Rickettsia spp., Babesia spp., and Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis in Ixodes spp. ticks removed from wildlife, domestic animals and humans in the Province of Trento (northern Italy) in order to better understand their ecology and provide public health professiona...
Abstract
Background
Human granulocytic anaplasmosis is a zoonotic bacterial disease with increasing relevance for public health in Europe. The understanding of its sylvatic cycle and identification of competent reservoir hosts are essential for improving disease risk models and planning preventative measures.
Results
In 2012 we collected single ear...
Stochastic processes play an important role in the infectious disease dynamics of wildlife, especially in species subject to large population oscillations.
Here we study the case of a free ranging population of yellow-necked mice (Apodemus flavicollis) in northern Italy, where circulation of Dobrava-Belgrade hantavirus (DOBV) has been detected inte...
Background
In Europe, Ixodes ricinus L. is the main vector of a variety of zoonotic pathogens, acquired through blood meals taken once per stage from a vertebrate host. Defining the main tick hosts in a given area is important for planning public health interventions; however, until recently, no robust molecular methods existed for blood meal ident...
Understanding the feeding biology of the wood tick is essential for the improvement of disease risk models, since this arthropod vector feeds on several vertebrate species, some of which are competent reservoir hosts for pathogenic organisms. Identifying the source of a bloodmeal in a questing tick poses particular technical challenges: host DNA is...
Dobrava-Belgrade virus (DOBV) is the most pathogenic hantavirus in Europe with a case-fatality
rate of up to 12%. To detect changes in risk for humans, the prevalence of antibodies to DOBV
has been monitored in a population of Apodemus flavicollis in the province of Trento (northern
Italy) since 2000, and a sudden increase was observed in 2010. In...
Author Summary
Our work analyses a 9-year time series of tick co-feeding patterns on Yellow-necked mice. Our data shows a strong heterogeneity, where most mice are parasitised by a small number of ticks while few host a much larger number. We describe the number of ticks per host by the commonly used Negative Binomial model, by the Poisson-LogNorm...
To the Editor: The tick-borne pathogen Anaplasma phagocytophilum is an increasing potential public health threat across Europe. Its intraspecific genetic variability is associated with different reservoir host and vector tick species (1–4); however, the roles of various vertebrates as competent reservoirs of A. phagocytophilum in Europe need clarif...
Baysesian analysis of of Anasplasma phagocytophilum
groEL gene partial sequences and 73 msp4 gene partial sequences.
During the last decade social network analysis has increased in importance as a methodological framework to study inter- and intra-specific relations between animals. Understanding patterns in social network structure have important consequences in biological control, conservation and help us make inferences about parasite/pathogen transmission dyn...
Dobrava-Belgrade virus (DOBV)is considered the most pathogenic of hantaviruses in Europe, causing HFSR with case fatality rate up to 12%. The first DOBV strain was isolated from lungs of A. flavicollis mice captured in Slovenia, southeast Europe, and now represents the prototype DOBV strain (named Slovenia, or Slo/Af) from A. flavicollis. The spat...
Complex human-related environmental changes at the global level are of a particularly high priority in ecological research. Global climate and land-use changes may alter the richness of biodiversity and related changes in distribution of parasites and pathogens may also result in the (re)emergence and spread of zoonoses in humans. As rodents are re...
Ixodes ricinus is a hematophagous arthropod considered as one of the main vector of human infectious diseases in Europe. Higher minimum temperatures and earlier spring permit the tick and so tick-borne disease to expand towards higher altitude and latitude. Little is know about the genetics of this vector. In this research we are focusing on a litt...
Tick borne encephalitis (TBE) is endemic to eastern and central Europe with broad temporal and spatial variation in infection risk. Although many studies have focused on understanding the environmental and socio-economic factors affecting exposure of humans to TBE, comparatively little research has been devoted to assessing the underlying ecologica...
The number of recorded emerging zoonotic diseases due to various micro-organisms harboured by rodents and ticks in Europe is increasing. Several factors may be involved in this rise, ranging from the capacity to identify new pathogens and recognise clinical signs of disease, to real changes in exposure and the spatial and temporal distribution and...
The wood tick Ixodes ricinus, one of the most common arthropod-borne disease vectors, is of increasing relevance for human and animal health in Europe. The aim of this study was to determine the relative contribution of several abiotic and biotic factors potentially affecting questing activity and local abundance of I. ricinus in Italy, considering...
We determined the prevalence of infection with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) among small mammals in northern Italy and analyzed long-term dynamics of LCMV in a rodent population in the province of Trento. LCMV is circulating among the most widespread and common wild rodent species in this area (Apodemus flavicollis, Myodes glareolus, an...
The Western Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus often causes devastating or lethal disease. In Europe, the number of human TBE cases has increased dramatically over the last decade, risk areas are expanding and new foci are being discovered every year. The early localisation of new TBE foci and the identification of the main risk factors associated...
Sequences of the variable intergenic spacer region 5S (rrfA) 23S (rrlB) rRNA were used to identify Borrelia genospecies present in Ixodes ricinus nymphs collected from the Lamar Lakes area of the Province of Trento, Italy (overall prevalence=6.3%). Four genospecies were identified, one for the first time in this Province (B. valaisiana), and three...
Deer support high tick intensities, perpetuating tick populations, but they do not support tick-borne pathogen transmission, so are dilution hosts. We test the hypothesis that absence of deer (loss of a dilution host) will result in either an increase or a reduction in tick density, and that the outcome is scale dependent. We use a complementary me...
The spatial and temporal distribution of hantavirus and arenavirus antibody-positive wild rodents in Trentino, Italy, was studied using immunofluorescence assays (IFA) in two long-term sites trapped in 2000-2003, and six other sites trapped in 2002. The overall hantavirus seroprevalence in the bank voles, Clethrionomys glareolus (n=229) screened fo...