Aims Tick-borne diseases (TBDs) pose a significant and increasing health threat globally. About 45 tick species have been described from Ghana, located in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it is unknown how well-informed local citizens are regarding the risks posed by ticks and TBDs. This research aimed to assess the public knowledge and awareness of TBPs and TBDs in Ghana through questionnaires. The survey underscored the potential veterinary and public health threats of TBDs, emphasizing the importance of awareness creation. Methods Utilizing a cross-sectional design, we collected data from 538 respondents across all 16 regions of Ghana through questionnaires and assessed public knowledge and awareness of TBDs. W used both an electronic survey form and a structured interview questionnaire to assess respondents’ knowledge of ticks and TBDs. Descriptive table statistics were used to tabulate frequencies and percentages of all categorical responses and more closely tested for associations between certain variable pairs. Results Results from the study identified limited public knowledge and awareness among animal owners and non-animal owners in Ghana. Furthermore, the results highlighted the association between domestic animal ownership and increased human-tick encounters. The findings suggest a pressing need for targeted public education on TBDs in Ghana. Conclusions As Ghana imports livestock, the risk of TBD spread demands attention. Overall, the survey contributes essential insights for veterinary and public health interventions, stressing the urgency of raising awareness and understanding among the public regarding the risks associated with ticks and TBDs. The cohabitation of humans with a variety of domestic animals, coupled with varying levels of veterinary service utilization, presents opportunities for targeted public health interventions.

Identifying hybridization between common pathogen vectors is essential due to the major public health implications through risks associated with hybrid’s enhanced pathogen transmission potential. These hard-ticks Ixodes ricinus and Ixodes persulcatus are the two most common vectors of tick-borne pathogens that affect human and animal health in Europe. I. ricinus is a known native species in Finland with a well-known distribution. Over the past 60 years, I. persulcatus has expanded in range making the species appear in areas previously not found in Finland. Here we used double-digest restriction site-associated DNA (ddRAD) sequencing on 92 ticks (morphologically identified as 46 I. ricinus, and 46 I. persulcatus) collected across Finland to investigate whether RAD generated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) discriminate tick species and identify hybridization events. Two different clustering methods were used to infer the specific species based on how they clustered and identified hybrids among them. We were able to discriminate between the two tick species and identified five putative hybrids with admixed genomic proportions ranging from approximately 25 to 75 percent. Four of these hybrids were morphologically identified as I. ricinus and the other as I. persulcatus. Our results suggest that RAD SNPs are robust for identifying both species of the ticks as well as their hybrid individuals. These results suggest ongoing hybridization between I. ricinus and I. persulcatus in their natural populations in Finland. This study is a significant step in understanding the formation of hybridization zones due to range expansion potentially associated with climate change. Despite our findings, our data are insufficient for resolving the factors that affect population genetic structure within species.

The distribution ranges and spatio-temporal patterns in the occurrence and activity of boreal bats are yet largely unknown due to their cryptic lifestyle and lack of suitable and efficient study methods. We approached the issue by establishing a permanent passive-acoustic sampling setup spanning the area of Finland to gain an understanding on how latitude affects bat species composition and activity patterns in northern Europe. The recorded bat calls were semi-automatically identified for three target taxa; Myotis spp., Eptesicus nilssonii or Pipistrellus nathusii and the seasonal activity patterns were modeled for each taxa across the seven sampling years (2015–2021). We found an increase in activity since 2015 for E. nilssonii and Myotis spp. For E. nilssonii and Myotis spp. we found significant latitude -dependent seasonal activity patterns, where seasonal variation in patterns appeared stronger in the north. Over the years, activity of P. nathusii increased during activity peak in June and late season but decreased in mid season. We found the passive-acoustic monitoring network to be an effective and cost-efficient method for gathering bat activity data to analyze spatio-temporal patterns. Long-term data on the composition and dynamics of bat communities facilitates better estimates of abundances and population trend directions for conservation purposes and predicting the effects of climate change.

To associate specimens identified by molecular characters to other biological knowledge, we need reference sequences annotated by Linnaean taxonomy. In this paper, we 1) report the creation of a comprehensive reference library of DNA barcodes for the arthropods of an entire country (Finland), 2) publish this library, and 3) deliver a new identification tool based on this resource. The reference library contains mtDNA COI barcodes for 11,275 (43%) of 26,437 arthropod species known from Finland, including 10,811 (45%) of 23,956 insect species. To quantify the improvement in identification accuracy enabled by the current reference library, we ran 1,000 Finnish insect and spider species through the Barcode of Life Data system (BOLD) identification engine. Of these, 91% were correctly assigned to a unique species when compared to the new reference library alone, 85% were correctly identified when compared to BOLD with the new material included, and 75% with the new material excluded. To capitalize on this resource, we used the new reference material to train a probabilistic taxonomic assignment tool, FinPROTAX, scoring high success. For the full-length barcode region, the accuracy of taxonomic assignments at the level of classes, orders, families, subfamilies, tribes, genera, and species reached 99.9%, 99.9%, 99.8%, 99.7%, 99.4%, 96.8%, and 88.5%, respectively. The FinBOL arthropod reference library and FinPROTAX are available through the Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (www.laji.fi). Overall, the FinBOL investment represents a massive capacity-transfer from the taxonomic community of Finland to all sectors of society.