MC meeting and workshop about applying an interdisciplinary approach for tick and tick-borne pathogen risk assessment while implementing the DAMA protocol
Place: Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Venue: Biodiversity Center, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine
of Cluj-Napoca (46.760200477138476 N, 23.57291719475615 E)
Local organizer: Andrei Daniel Mihalca, DipECZM
This workshop is organized under the PRAGMATICK COST Action and aims to foster
interdisciplinary dialogue between natural scientists and social scientists in the field of
tick and tick-borne pathogen surveillance. The workshop aligns with the principles of
the DAMA protocol (Document, Assess, Monitor, Act), emphasizing integrative risk
assessment approaches that incorporate ecological, epidemiological, and socio-cultural
dimensions.
Objectives:
- to identify and map current tick surveillance practices across Europe
- to explore how anthropological perspectives can enrich ecological and
epidemiological risk assessment - to develop an interdisciplinary framework for surveillance and early warning,
grounded in the DAMA principles - to foster sustained collaboration between tick biologists, ecologists, and social
scientists
AGENDA
Day 1 (Thursday, 2 October 2025)
- 09.00-09.15 Welcome by local organizers (Andrei Daniel Mihalca)
- 09.15-09.30 PRAGMATICK COST Action: the network’s past, present and future (Gábor Földvári)
- 09.30-10.00 Keynote Lecture (Frédéric Le Marcis – Hotspot, blindspot of Surveillance. An input of anthropology to preparedness
- 10.00-10.30 Keynote Lecture (Jolyon Medlock) – The current status and future prospects of ticks and tick-borne diseases in the UK
- 10.30-11.00 Coffee break
- 11.00-13.00 Social Science Workshop: Mapping knowledge and practices related to ticks across EU (Frédéric Le Marcis, Théo Sabadel, Juan Valdez, Léa Delmaire)
- 13.00-14.00 Lunch
- 14:00-15.00 Case studies: Turkey (Chair: Gábor Földvári)
- Social Science (Léa Delmaire)
- Health Science, Ecology (Zati Vatansever/Ömer Orkun)
- 15.00-16.00 Case studies: Spain (Chair: Andrei Daniel Mihalca)
- Social Science (Juan Valdez)
- Health Science, Ecology (Félix Válcarcel)
- 16.00-16.30 Coffee break
- 16:30-17:30 Case studies: Romania (Chair: Frédéric Le Marcis)
- Social Science (Théo Sabadel)
- Health Science, Ecology (Andrei Daniel Mihalca)
- 17.30-18:00 Synthesis of day (Chair: Frédéric Le Marcis, Gábor Földvári, Andrei Daniel Mihalca)
- 19.00-21:00 Dinner (Roata Făget Restaurant)
Day 2 (Friday, 3 October 2025)
- 09:00-11:00 Roundtable: How could/should entomologist and anthropologist collaborate?
Constraints and opportunities: example from the field (Chairs: Théo Sabadel and Eva
Szabo) - 11:00-11:30 Coffee break
- 11:30-13:00 STSM reports (Chair: Eva Szabo)
- Aleksandra Cvetkovska Gjorgjievska: Molecular approach for tick species identification and tick-borne pathogen detection on samples from North Macedonia
- Anastasia Diakou: Morphological identification of ticks: how much can hybrids complicate this task?
- Aleksandra Krawczyk: Geographic information system for studying ticks and tick-borne diseases in urban areas
- Nikolina Sokolovska: Morphological identification of ticks and molecular detection and characterization of tick-borne pathogens from urban and peri-urban ecosystems in Skopje, North Macedonia
- Zuzana Dvornikova: Protein-saccharide interaction of Lyme borreliosis decorin binding proteins
- Lenka Doudová: Production and potential application of Single-Domain Antibodies for the detection of tick-transmitted diseases
- Felix Válcarcel: Field sampling of Hyalomma marginatum in Türkiye
- Dejan Jakimovski: Development of proficiency in tick morph. analysis and exploration of seroreactivity against Ehrlichia spp. in human cohort
- 13.00-14.00 Lunch
- 14:00-17.00 MC Meeting (Chair: Gábor Földvári)
You can download the full program by clicking on the following link: PROGRAM
