Headlines - A smartphone app to help prevent Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses: Signalement-Tique!

Ticks are the leading vector of animal diseases worldwide and the second leading vector of human diseases after mosquitoes. In humans, they transmit, in particular, the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease, causing approximately 27,000 new cases per year in France.

Since the 2000s, ANSES, INRA, and the National Veterinary School of Alfort have been conducting research on ticks at ANSES’s Animal Health Laboratory in Maisons-Alfort and the “Tous Chercheurs” Laboratory at the INRA Grand Est Center in Nancy. This research combines fundamental studies with participatory research involving the public. The studies conducted provide a better understanding of tick-borne pathogens and thus enable more effective control measures.

As part of a project called CITIQUE, researchers have developed, in collaboration with scientific partners—including the National Vector Expertise Center and the National Reference Center for Borrelia, as well as the Ministry of Solidarity and Health—a website and a smartphone app called Signalement-Tique. The app can be downloaded for free from the App Store and Google Play.

Thanks to the Signalement-Tique app, a practical and interactive tool, hikers can access information on prevention or how to remove a tick wherever they are. It will provide tick distribution maps that will be used for prevention efforts.

The data collected will advance the scientific knowledge needed to better understand and thus better prevent tick-borne diseases, particularly through the development of risk assessment models. Citizens participating in the project will play a decisive role and help provide answers to many questions: Can you get bitten in winter and summer, even though the peak seasons are spring and fall? Are there times of day when ticks are more active and bite more frequently? Are people more likely to be bitten in forests, urban parks, or their own gardens? Which pathogens are most commonly found in ticks? In which regions? Users will thus have access to practical information and advice on what to do if they are bitten by a tick.