Singapore earmarks up to $2.4m to tackle tick-borne diseases

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SINGAPORE - About $2.4 million is being set aside by the authorities to fund an initiative that will help gain a deeper understanding of ticks and tick-borne diseases that infect animals and humans in Singapore.

Doctors are not required to report tick bites in Singapore, but a recent study found that native ticks that bite humans can turn into ticking time-bombs by carrying disease-causing microbes, also known as pathogens.

These bead-size bloodsuckers typically lurk in leaf litter near wildlife corridors, posing a threat to hikers, bikers and dog owners who frequent these places.

Responding to queries from The Straits Times, National Parks Board (NParks) group director of veterinary health Chua Tze Hoong said the studies will help in the early detection and intervention against outbreaks of diseases that spread from animals to humans, which are called zoonotic diseases.

The studies are part of a $15 million biosurveillance research programme to monitor the environment for zoonotic diseases amid a growing risk of such outbreaks.

This has been attributed to climate change, the urbanisation of natural habitats, increased travel and trade in disease-carrying animals.

The $2.4 million funding will help establish the population structure and interactions of local tick fauna with their hosts, according to a grant document released on NParks website in January.

Amid an ongoing push in Singapore to introduce more parks and park connectors, every household is expected to be within a 10-minute walk from a park by 2030.

As people pursue recreational activities in such nature areas, the likelihood of coming into contact with ticks increases, the document said.

Future research on ticks in Singapore will add to existing biosurveillance efforts by the NParks Animal and Veterinary Service, which has uncovered tick-borne blood parasites that cause zoonotic diseases in stray dogs and dogs in shelters, as well as the environment in which they live.

Researchers in the recent study recommended that both tick bites and seven tick-borne diseases need to be tracked by the authorities to ensure a prompt response to the introduction of new tick-borne pathogens.

In some cases, tick bites have turned fatal. In 2023, an elderly woman in Japan died after getting bitten by a tick carrying the Oz virus, which causes lethal infections i...

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