Tick bites and habitat increasing in Switzerland

© Keystone / Gaetan Bally

Every year around 14,000 cases of tick bites are recorded in Switzerland, an increase of 40% compared with a decade ago.

“The area of habitat suitable for ticks has increased by almost two-thirds between 2009 and 2018,” Felix Ineichen, a tick expert at SUVA, the Swiss National Accident Insurance Fund, said in a statement on Thursday, citing a study by researchers in French-speaking Switzerland.

The area where these blood-sucking parasites are found has increased by 4,000 km2 in ten years.

Global warming is encouraging the spread of ticks in Switzerland, according to a study. Conditions in areas between 500 and 1,000 metres above sea level have become more favourable to ticks, which “are becoming increasingly happy there”, says Ineichen.

At the same time, the number of tick bites has risen from an average of 10,000 a year between 2012 and 2016 to 14,000 between 2017 and 2021.

Weather also plays a role

The weather conditions also influence the number of tick bites, SUVA points out. If temperatures rise from March onwards, ticks come out of hibernation earlier and there are more people outdoors. The peak of bites is between May and June.

Ticks feed on blood and are found in undergrowth, on plants and along roadsides looking for a host. Their preferred attachment sites are often the hollow of the knee and the groin, and the head in children.

Ticks can transmit infectious diseases such as borreliosis or meningitis. There is no vaccine against borreliosis, also called Lyme disease, but it can be treated with antibiotics. In the case of vernal meningoencephalitis (VME), the course of the disease can be severe, with lasting damage and death. There is a vaccine against tick-borne meningoencephalitis, but antibiotics are not effective.