(Photo by Georg Wietschorke via Pexels) Ticks could spread new diseases around the world by hitching a lift on migrating birds, warns new research. The parasitic bugs have always traveled with birds - but rising temperatures due to global warming mean they may now survive at their destination along with the diseases they carry, say scientists. Some journeys can take ticks thousands of miles from their usual geographic range but, historically, they haven’t been able to establish themselves, due to unsuitable climate conditions at their final destination.
Now, a new study suggests that it’s getting easier for ticks to survive and spread thanks to climate change, potentially bringing new diseases with them. Study lead author Professor Shahid Karim, of the , said: “If conditions become more hospitable for tropical tick species to establish themselves in areas where they would previously have been unsuccessful, then there is a chance they could bring new diseases with them." Karim says that ticks are "very effective" disease vectors, connecting humans and domestic animals to diseases carried in wild reservoirs such as Lyme disease, and birds - particularly migratory birds - allow them to travel very long distances.
The changes to global temperatures caused by climate change are now making it easier for some ticks to establish themselves as invasive species. (Photo by Erik Karits via Pexels) Karim says establishment can be very rapid: for example, the Asian long-horned tick w.