Disease vectors are living organisms, typically arthropods such as mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, sandflies, and triatomine bugs, that biologically or mechanically transmit pathogenic agents between hosts, thereby enabling the spread of infectious diseases within populations and ecosystems. In vector-borne disease systems, pathogens often undergo essential developmental or replication stages within the vector (biological transmission), or are passively carried on contaminated body parts (mechanical transmission). Research on disease vectors encompasses their ecology, population dynamics, host-feeding behavior, vector competence, insecticide resistance, and interactions with environmental and climatic factors, informing surveillance, risk modeling, and integrated vector management strategies for disease control.
With spring underway and the weather warming, reptiles are on the move in suburbs, parks and scrubland across Australia. Snake catchers and wildlife caregivers are responding to calls for help, and reptile enthusiasts—known ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 13, 2026
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New technology from Texas A&M AgriLife Research could be a major step toward bringing disease-resistant peppers and tomatoes to growers' fields and lowering costs at grocery stores.
Biotechnology
Oct 2, 2026
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When public health researchers want to know whether diseases such as COVID-19 or polio are circulating in a community, they can look for genetic evidence in wastewater.
Ecology
Sep 14, 2026
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South Africa's malaria elimination teams could soon have backup from millions of decoy mosquitoes specially bred at Africa's first mosquito factory. These insects are part of South Africa's pioneering Sterile Insect Technique ...
Ecology
Sep 8, 2026
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7
On an August morning last year, an American couple soon to embark on a European river cruise awoke in a luxury hotel in Lisbon.
Plants & Animals
Aug 31, 2026
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A small, nest-dwelling tick found across large parts of Texas could play an outsized role in how the United States responds to African swine fever (ASF) should the virus reach domestic or wild pigs.
Ecology
Aug 26, 2026
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9
A 12-year study of rescued chimpanzees at the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary (NICS) in Uganda has revealed persistent intestinal schistosomiasis infections, highlighting the need for long-term disease surveillance to ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 24, 2026
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9
Tsetse flies transmit some of Africa's most persistent parasitic diseases. They have affected human health, livestock production and rural development for generations, across a region spanning millions of square kilometers ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 19, 2026
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20
Tick-borne diseases are on the rise in the United States. Lyme disease is the most commonly reported, with nearly half a million people diagnosed each year. Caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, it is most often spread ...
Ecology
Aug 17, 2026
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289
A three-month Fulbright U.S. Scholar trip to Argentina wasn't just about bringing Texas know-how to South America for Gabriel Hamer, Ph.D., a Texas A&M AgriLife Research entomologist and professor in the Department of Entomology ...
Ecology
Aug 14, 2026
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