Current Research in
Tick-Borne Infections
Kalmar March 2001

 

abstracts

programme

committees

sponsors

An inter-disciplinary Nordic-Baltic meeting, organized by the Research Centre for Zoonotic Ecology and Epidemiology in collaboration with the Dept of Clinical Microbiology, the Dept of Infectious Diseases, Kalmar County Hospital, and the Dept of Natural Sciences, University of Kalmar.

The venue: Brofästet Conference Centre, Kalmar, Sweden.
By Car: Take road E22 and exit towards Öland, road 137. Take first exit to the right, and at the intersection, take another right and you’ll be on Ängöleden. After one kilometer make another right on Gröndalsvägen. The conference center is located on your right hand-side.
By Train: Brofästet lies 1,5 km from Kalmar train station. Take a taxi to the conference center.
By Plane: Fly to Kalmar Airport. From there take the airport shuttle or taxi to the conference center.

Conference fee: SEK 2.500:- including meals and social programme. 

Accomodation: Rooms are available at the conference centre. The price is SEK 807:– per night for a single bed room and SEK 1014:- for a double bed room. Reservation should be made at the time of registration.

Main sponsor: Electra-Box Diagnostica

Official language: English

 

Aims of the meeting

The main purpose of this meeting is to bring together scientists from both basic and clinical science, active in the field of tick-borne infections, in order to increase networking and inter-disciplinary collaboration between human and veterinary medicine, microbiology, entomology and other relevant disciplines.

More specifically, the meeting aims to

  • give an overview of current knowledge in tick biology and ecology

  • present up to date epidemiology and epizootology of tick-borne infections of importance to human and veterinary medicine in Scandinavia and the Baltic region.

  • discuss current trends regarding diagnostic methods, therapy and prophylaxis

  • present ongoing projects and state-of-the art research, and discuss preliminary results, in order for the participants to exchange ideas and experiences

  • identify priority areas for furure inter-disciplinary collaboration and research

All speakers will be asked to supply digital manuscripts for publication. The proceedings of the meeting will be in the format of an interactive website.

Each participant is encouraged to bring his or her favourite poster (new or old) to the combined Poster Museum and Get Together Party on the first evening. This combined social and professional warming-up activity will hopefully ensure a high degree of interactivity and a friendly athmosphere during the rest of the meeting.


Programme
 


Wednesday 


 28 March
 

15.00–18.00

Registration. Mounting of posters.

18.30–

Poster Museum / Get Together Party
 


Thursday 
 


 29 March

08.15–08.30

Opening address, practical information. Ingvar Eliasson
Key Note Speakers. Moderator: Johan Berglund

08.30–09.15
  1. The biology of ticks. Prof Jeremy Gray, Dept of Environmental Resource Management, Faculty of Agriculture, Univ College Dublin, Republic of Ireland.

09.15–10.00
  1. Epidemiological consequences of tick ecology. Dr Sarah Randolph, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, U.K. LINK 

10.00–10.30

Coffee break and Press Conference

10.30–11.15
  1. Structure and function of the surface proteins of Borrelia species. Dr Jonas Bunikis, Dept of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Irvine, USA.

11.15–12.00
  1. Tick-Borne Encephalitis. Dr Mats Haglund, Dept Infectious Diseases, Kalmar County Hospital, Kalmar, Sweden.

12.00–13.00

Lunch

13.00–13.45
  1. Granulocytic Ehrlichioses in Scandinavia. Dr Anneli Bjöersdorff, Dept Clinical Microbiology, Kalmar County Hospital, Kalmar, Sweden

13.45–14.15
  1. Recent research on human babesiosis - the Scandinavian perspective. Lars Victor von Stedingk, Dept Clinical Microbiology, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.

14.15–15.00
  1. Tick-Borne Infections – the CDC perspective. Dr Robert F Massung, National Center for Infectious diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.

15.00–15.30

Coffee Break

15.30–17.30

Round Table Discussions (parallell sessions):

Theme I. Laboratory diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis.

Theme II. Laboratory diagnosis of granulocytic ehrlichioses.

Theme III. Evolutionary aspects of tick-borne infectious agents, their vectors and hosts.

Theme IV. Immunoprofylaxis of tick-borne infections.

18.30

Departure by bus to Kalmar Castle

19.00–

Midieval dinner and entertainment
 


Friday 


 30 March
 

08.30–10.00

Free communications. Moderator: Åke Lundkvist.

  1. Tick-borne encephalitis in Norway. Tone Skarpaas, Dept Clinical Microbiology, Vest-Agder Central Hospital, Kristiansand, Norway.
  2. Characterization of Tick-borne encephalitis virus from Latvia: evidence for co-circulation of three distinct subtypes. Åke Lundkvist, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, and Microbiology and Tumour Biology Center, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
  3. Epidemiology of Tick-Born Encephalitis and it's Clinical Manifestations in Panevèzys City County.Violeta Dambrauskienè, Eugenijus Preidis, Panevèzio Infekcinè Ligoninè, Lithuania.
  4. Quantification of spirochete burden in Borrelia burgdorferi infected ticks fed on OspA immunized mice by 16S rRNA RT real-time PCR. Katharina Ornstein, Dept Medical Microbiology, Dermatology and Infectious Diseases, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
  5. Flagellin A (FlaA) in the serodiagnosis of Lyme borreliosis. Pekka Lahdenne, Hospital for Children and Adolescents, University of Helsinki, Finland.
  6. A defined mixture of recombinant antigens from several Borrelia genospecies improves serodiagnosis of Lyme disease. Erwin Soutschek, Mikrogen GmbH, Martinsried, Germany.
  7. Cytokines in Lyme Borreliosis: in vivo levels of TGF-beta1, TNF-alpha and IL-6 in serum and cerebrospinal fluid from patients with Neuroborreliosis or Erythema migrans in relation to clinical outcome. Mona Widhe, Division of Clinical Immunology and Division of Infectious Diseases, Dep of Health and Environment, Faculty of Health Sciences, Linköping University, Sweden.

10.00–10.30

Coffee Break

10.30–12.30

Free communications. Moderator: Björn Olsen.

  1. Serological evidence of Lyme arthritis in Egypt. Ingrid Nilsson, Dept Medical Microbiology, Dermatology and Infectious Diseases, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
  2. Development of an Immunomagnetic Separation method for enrichment and isolation of Borrelia spirochetes. Kjell Edman, Dept Chermistry and Biomedical Sciences, Kalmar University, Kalmar, Sweden.
  3. Ticks have preferences in choosing human hosts. Dag Nyman, The Åland Borrelia Group, Mariehamn, Åland, Finland.
  4. Human Granulocytic Ehrlichia Infection in Belgium. Paul Heyman, Research Laboratory for Vector-borne diseases, Queen Astrid Military Hospital, Brussels, Belgium.
  5. Granulocytic Ehrlichia infection in domestic and wild ruminants in Norway. Snorre Stuen, Dept Sheep and Goat Research, Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, Sandnes, Norway.
  6. A serosurvey of granulocytic Ehrlicha spp. and Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in 2018 Swedish horses. Peter Franzén, ATG Klinik- och Forskningsavdelningen, Stockholm, Sweden.
  7. Tick species and arthropod-transmitted infections from Danish cats and dogs. Kim Larsen, KSL Consulting, Helsinge, Denmark.
  8. A field trial of the effectiveness of 65% permetrin spot-on and 9,7% fipronil spot-on against ticks (Ixodes ricinus) on dogs. Lena Malmgren, Schering-Plough Animal Health, Sweden.

12.30–13.30

Lunch

13.30–14.30

Panel discussion. Late breaking news. Future prospects. Concluding remarks. Moderator: Ingvar Eliasson

 

 

 

This version of the programme was published 2003-02-07
Final programme will be published and distributed to the participants upon arrival. Presentation order is preliminary.

PDF-download

Preliminary programme and call for abstracts
Page 1 + 4   (1339 kb)
Page 2 + 3   (180 kb)
Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader or other software able to read PDF-files.

Programme Committee

Anneli Bjöersdorff, Johan Berglund, Ingvar Eliasson, Mats Haglund, Åke Lundkvist, Björn Olsen, Sirkka Vene

Correspondence:
Ingvar Eliasson
Dept Clinical Microbiology
Kalmar County Council
SE-391 85  Kalmar, Sweden
Fax +46-480-81738
Phone +46-480-81441
Email ingvar.eliasson@ltkalmar.se
 

Organizing Committee

Anneli Bjöersdorff, Tony Björn, Ingvar Eliasson, Mona Forsberg, Ulf Garpmo, Marianne Hedman

Correspondence:
Marianne Hedman
Electra-Box Diagnostica
Box 2035
SE-135 02 Tyresö, Sweden
Phone +46-8-7123000
Fax +46-8-7126509
Email marianne.hedman@electrabox.com

Sponsors

  • Electra-Box Diagnostica

  • GlaxoSmithKline

  • Kalmar kommun

  • Landstinget i Kalmar län

  • Nordic Drugs

  • Pfizer AB

The sponsors made it possible to add quality to the meeting by inviting prominent key-note speakers, and to experience a midieval dinner at the Kalmar Castle. They also made it possible for more participants to attend by supplying travel funds.

THANK YOU for assisting us in making this a successful meeting!
Kalmar, March 27, 2001
The members of the Programme Committee
                |   last modified Friday, June 13, 2003