[New aspects of the epidemiology of tick-borne encephalitis]

Profound studies of the mechanisms of virus transfer by bites and the behaviour of the infected ticks of male Ixodes ticks in the virus transfer and establish the effect of early and short-term suction of ticks in the onset of the disease. Preservation of saliva cement stopper in the skin of the infected vertebral host is of particular importance in the epidemiology and epizootiology of tick-borne encephalitis, as the cement cone in the skin may contain the quantity of the virus comparable with its concentration in the whole body of the tick. The experimental data suggest the predominant and more successful virus multiplication in the most viable and active ticks of the population as well as virus-induced stimulation of searching activity in the infected ticks. The attention is attracted to possible retention of the natural virus store by its elimination with the saliva of male ticks and virus exchange by sucking of the infected saliva from the affected focus on the skin by noninfected ticks fed together with infected insects, insensitive to tick-borne encephalitis virus.