Is it true that in the USSR there were much less ticks than in modern Russia?

The opinion is that there were much smaller ticks during the USSR and they bit people less often. We decided to check if this is confirmed by statistical data.

About the almost complete absence of ticks in the Soviet Union is often written in the media: "Russian seed","Moscow Komsomolets","Arguments and facts". Also, this topic is popular in blogs - such posts There is on "Zen" And "Picabu",VKontakte", V "Pulse Mail.ru", On YouTube and in Livejournal.

Ticks are representatives of the subclass of arthropods from the classroom class. They They make up The largest group in the classroom is described by more than 54,000 species, including 144 fossils. Interestingly, the ticks almost did not evolve - 242 million years ago these animals are minimal Differently From their contemporaries. Some scientists even suggestthat ticks that endure various deadly diseases, together with malaria mosquitoes, have become one of the causes of the extinction of dinosaurs.

Today, the most dangerous family of ticks for humans and animals is ixodic. These arthropods are distributed absolutely across the planet, including in the Arctic and Antarctica (for example, Described species parasitic on penguins). In a scientific type of nutrition of ticks, it is called bonding hematophagia, that is, for further development, the animal in Each The phase of his life (larva, nymph of the first stage and sometimes the second, and then an imago, that is, an adult individual) Must Eat the blood of another creature. Larvae They eat The blood of small rodents and birds, pouring over the winter of nymphs hunt larger animals - hares, hedgehogs, chipmunks. And only turning into an Imago, the tick manifests interest in human blood. The life cycle of the tick, depending on the species, takes from several days to a decade. If external conditions are unfavorable, ticks can leave In the ranguza - an analogue of hibernation, during which they become almost immune to any poisonous substances.

Ticks can be carriers of various pathogens. The first group is viruses, such as Flavivirus, which causes tick -borne encephalitis, a serious illness characterized by fever, intoxication and damage to the gray substance of the brain and the shells of the brain and spinal cord (meningitis, meningoencephalitis, encephalomielitis). This disease can lead to severe neurological and psychiatric complications, as well as the death of the patient. Death Arrives In 1-3% of cases when infected with a European subtype and reaches 40% with Far Eastern subtype. At the same time from tick -borne encephalitis exists Effective vaccine. 

Also, with a bite, a tick can infect a person with simple, for example, tripanosomes that cause Shagas disease, which can lead to irreversible damage to internal organs, primarily hearts. Her mortality It comes up to 10%, the vaccine does not exist. Also, the dog can become infected with dangerous simplest ones with a bite of the tick - in particular, pyroplasmides cause serious blood diseases: Babesiosis, tayleriosis and nuttalliosis. Babusiosis (pyroplasmosis) is especially dangerous for small, elderly or weakened animals, usually they Can't Cope with the disease and die from the destruction of blood red blood cells. Vaccines also do not exist, but antiparasitic drugs have some effectiveness. 

The next group of dangerous pathogens is the round-parasites of the filia, which amazing Different systems of organs: lymphatic, causing ivory-pathological growth of the skin and subcutaneous tissue, gastrointestinal and heart. Also, the parasite can settle under the skin, in the brain, in the testicles or inside the eyeball, causing blindness. 

Ticks also tolerate dangerous bacteria - spirochets and ricketsia. The former cause Lyme's disease, another name is tick -borne borreliosis, which is manifested by headache, nausea, migrating pain in the bones and muscles, general weakness, rapid fatigue and fever with temperature rise up to 40 ° C. This disease responds well to antibiotic therapy, also in 1995 appeared The vaccine against it, but on the wave of anti -Vaccinator movement, it turned out to be unclaimed and was discontinued. Now Starting Development of a vaccine based on MRNC technology. In turn, Ricketsia cause tick -borne typhus, which Accompanied fever, headache, muscle pain and characteristic rashes, the prognosis for proper treatment is usually favorable.

Given the number of diseases carried by ticks, measures to reduce the population of these arthropods are very justified. In recent years, the incidence of tick -borne encephalitis and borreliosis has been especially growing in Russia, which is regularly reported by Rospotrebnadzor, while not publishing in open access to generalized statistics on tick bites over the years. For example, in 2015 the department indicatedthat the situation in May “approximately at the level of the same period last year” (129,422 victims), in June - “The reversibility of ticks affected by bite increased by 15%” (235,281), in July - “The reversibility of ticks affected by bite increased by 21%” (361 559), in August - “The reversibility of tick bites increased by 19%” (478,291 from the beginning of the year). There are no final ones data And in the media. In the opening tick -old season press release On April 1, 2016, it was said that "in the epidemic season of 2015 (from April 1 to October 1), more than 500,000 cases of people circulation were registered in the country to medical organizations regarding the suction of ticks, which is 22% more than in 2014." Moreover, in 2016 Changed And the calculation methodology: if in 2015 the department indicated the number of citizens who applied to medical institutions for bites, then in the reports of 2016 this parameter is changed-there are numbers only on the studied ticks. That is, if in 2015 a man was bitten by a tick, he got rid of him on his own, and came to the hospital to consult a doctor, then he fell into statistics, but in 2016 he was not taken into account without a tick with him in statistics. The results of the season are not summed up in principle - the last ballot records the situation on August 12. By that time, there is already the number of appeals to the hospital - 419,000 (an increase of 12% compared to the same period last year). This is somewhat contradicts the earlier comments of the media department: for example, in May 2016, Kommersant Rospotrebnadzor reported: “The number of ticks that turned about bites has increased four times compared to the same period last year” (publication of May 5, 2016). 

Thus, it is impossible to collect methodological clear statistics on tick bites even over the past 10 years, not to mention tracing dynamics since the time of the USSR.

However, there are several factors that could really lead to the fact that there are more ticks. The first thing to note is global warming. And although ticks can live even in harsh conditions of high latitudes, those species that live in the forests of Russia are most comfortable Feel At an average daily temperature above +15 ° C. For example, 2020 was The warmest for the history of observations - the average annual temperature was 3.22 ° C higher than the norm. Temperature growth rate in Russia much Higher than on average in the world - "in 1976–2019 [the increase] amounted to an average of 0.47 ° C in ten years." That is, the duration of the season of ticks has increased: arthropods wake up earlier, fall asleep later, and they have more time to potentially bite people.

The second important factor is the level of awareness of the danger of tick bites. From April 1, 2023 on request at Google "Clesses Bite" issued About 250 publications. Now the patient is more likely to turn into a medical facility and will be listed in statistics, and will not remain at home, twisting the tick on his own. If the tick was unfortunate, no adverse consequences for health will occur and the fact of the bite will not be reflected anywhere.

Finally, the third and possibly the most important factor is what can be conditionally called forest use. Firstly, a special environment is required to move from stage to stage to the tick-wet and warm litter of grass, fallen leaves and lobby. In the days of the USSR, agricultural Spring Pal The herbs simply left the tick significantly less secluded places for molting. About the importance of such prevention, for example, Written In the article “Ixodal Ticks” in the third edition (1974–1989) “Big Medical Encyclopedia”: “The fight against ticks includes forestry and agro -cultural measures (forests from valezhnik, burning of grassy vegetation before the growing season, recovery of pastures and haying lands, their proper change and proper change and proper change and the correct change and the correct change and the correct change and the correct change and the correct change and the correct change and the correct change of change and their correct change and the correct change and their correct change and their proper change etc.) ". The same article refers to the use of special acaricidal (that is, “killing ticks”) of the drugs: “According to epidemiol [ogic] indications, the focal territories are treated with acaricides (DDT preparations, hexachloran and phosphororganic compounds). In the steppe and deserted p [ao] nah, to combat ticks and their feeders, combined aerosols are used. Acaricidal aerosols are used to process the premises where cattle are contained. Cattle processing is performed by phosphorus -sorcative compounds. ” 

DDT, known to chemists as dichlorordiphenylhrichlormethyl methas₁₄H₉Cl₅) - a strong acaricide and insecticide. In 1939, the Swiss chemist Paul Müller, studying the already known to the scientist of DDT, found that he was extremely effectively killing various pests of agricultural crops. In 1948, Müller was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology with the wording "For the opening of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison."

At the same time, the substance saved not only the crop - in 1944 DDT was able prevent Tif Epidemic in Naples. The main carrier of the typhoid is a pay -in -law. In order to save people from these insects, 1.3 million people were sprayed with a 5 % DDT solution, there were no serious side effects, except for individual skin reactions, and the epidemic was defeated at its very beginning. According to the American National Academy of Sciences, the use of DDT also saved 500 million people from malaria, killing its carriers - mosquitoes.

However, in 1962, the book of the American writer Rachel Karson “Silent Spring” was published in print, in which the author claimed that DDT worsens the reproductive function of birds. Many eco -activists have embarked on the side of Karson. By the end of the 1970s, most countries abandoned the use of DDT. The USSR is formally Introduced Such a ban in 1969, however, in practice in certain regions, insecticide was used until the early 1990s. Indicative also experience South Africa: After the country prohibited the use of DDT in 1996, the incidence of malaria increased six times, and the authorities have no other way to resolve its use again. All these years, one might say, kept neutrality - DDT did not forbid, but it did not finance its purchases with developing countries, as is the case with other medicines.

At the same time, scientists have a lot to the book of Karson questions. Firstly, it often relies only on anecdotal evidence like "there were many birds in our village before, but there were few." Secondly, its data contradict the observations of ornithologists-the number of birds during these years in the USA, on the contrary, increased. Thirdly, she refers to the work of James Deutta, who mixed high doses of DDT into the birds, and then came to the conclusion that the group that regularly received this supplement, the chicks hatched only 80% of the eggs. It really sounds alarming, if we do not take into account the fact that the control group was not much higher - only 83.9%. In 2012, to the 50th anniversary of Silent Spring, in Nature magazine Published A critical letter of a group of scientists that the abandonment of DDT was unreasonable. The authors of the letter argued that "from 60 to 80 million premature and vain deaths - mostly children's children became the result of unreasonable fears based on poorly understood observations." Popularizer of scientific thinking and factual Hans Reding He thinks Social alertness in relation to DDT of one of the most important causes of chemophobia is a fear of chemicals. Hemophobe is trying to avoid “chemistry” wherever possible - in cosmetics, in everyday life and products, not realizing that the whole world consists of chemical elements and eat “not chemistry” is simply impossible.

Returning to the ticks, it can be assumed that it was DDT who played the key role in reducing their population during the USSR, which regularly sprayed huge areas. Firstly, this insecticide was relatively cheap in production, secondly, processing could even be done from airplanes, which allowed you to affect huge areas, thirdly, the drug acted for a long time-in early spring, was enough for a whole season. On the importance of DDT processing in the commentary "Kommersant" expressed The leading researcher at the Laboratory of Natural Research Institutions of the Central Research Institute of Rospotrebnadzor Lyudmila Karan: “In the 1970s, for example, in the Kemerovo region, where there were a very high number of cases of encephalitis, an experiment was based on total processing of all territories of DDT. Due to his long action, all three generations of ticks of the three-year development cycle were destroyed. ” 

Unfortunately, humanity does not have a full and safer analogue of DDT yet, but in list It is not included in the use of pesticides and agrochemicals. Modern preparations against ticks, firstly, have A short period of validity, and processing should be carried out several times per season. Secondly, the state no longer organizes mass processing of all forest zones. Instead acting SanPiN suggeststhat legal entities and individual entrepreneurs must ensure the acaricidal of “territories of parks, squares, cemeteries, health bases and organizations, places of mass recreation and population stay, as well as surrounding areas at a distance of at least 50 m”. Such selective processing also contributes to the further spread of these arthropods.

Thus, there is a chance that ticks in the USSR were really much smaller. Global warming increased the season when the average annual air temperature became more favorable for their appearance, and the rejection of such an effective insecticide as DDT led to an increase in the number of all kinds of insects and spider -shaped, including ticks. The systematic processing of large territories, which is now absent, and the features of agriculture, also played a role. However, the exact measurements of the number of these arachnids were not carried out either then or now. Moreover, only those who turned for help after a bite fall into statistics. Therefore, the exact numbers about the bites are also impossible to get.

Image on the cover: Silver Bor (Khoroshevsky Forest Park), a forest in the west of Moscow. Photo Bank Moscow-Live

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