TBE in South Korea

Abstract

Although no human case of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) has been documented in South Korea to date, surveillance studies have been conducted to evaluate the prevalence of tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) in wild ticks. Four studies collected ticks by dragging or flagging in grassland and forest, while 1 study tested wild mammals (boars and rodents) by removing ticks from them. In the wild of South Korea, Haemaphysalis spp. were the predominant species found by tick dragging, while Ixodes nipponensis became predominant when harvested from small mammals.