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.
An invasive grass found on almost every continent and considered a pest in 73 countries isn't just weeding out native plants, it is creating a haven for disease-carrying ticks and raising public health risk concerns.
Ecology
Nov 13, 2025
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The transmission of malaria by the Anopheles cruzii mosquito in the South and Southeast of Brazil was so alarming in the 1940s—with approximately 4,000 cases per 100,000 people—that the disease became known as bromeliad ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 12, 2025
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People who live in the tropical areas where Aedes aegypti mosquitoes reside have probably known for centuries, or even millennia—thanks to their itchy bites—that the mosquitoes hunt most often at dawn and dusk. A new ...
Ecology
Nov 12, 2025
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Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease transmitted by sand flies, has long challenged veterinarians and public health experts alike. Found in humans and animals across Israel and many other parts of the world, the disease's intricate ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Nov 11, 2025
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It's bound to happen at a summer picnic, a peaceful walk in the woods or simply sitting in your backyard… a mosquito targets your blood for its next meal. You've been bitten. But how do mosquitoes find you?
Plants & Animals
Oct 30, 2025
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25
The most dangerous animal in the world just got easier to study—and perhaps defeat one day. Researchers from Rockefeller University's Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, in collaboration with mosquito experts around ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 30, 2025
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Researchers from the University of South Florida have used artificial intelligence and citizen science to identify what may be the first specimen of Anopheles stephensi—an invasive and deadly malaria-carrying mosquito—ever ...
Ecology
Oct 28, 2025
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Evolutionary biologists have long believed that the human-biting mosquito, Culex pipiens form molestus, evolved from the bird-biting form, Culex pipiens form pipiens, in subways and cellars in northern Europe over the past ...
Evolution
Oct 23, 2025
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Mosquitoes aren't just a nuisance; they can carry diseases like West Nile virus, which can be transmitted to humans—and research shows their populations are on the rise in the U.S. despite city- and county-level efforts ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 22, 2025
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West Nile Virus was once a nominal concern for Utahns but since August 2003, when it was first detected in the Beehive State, infections in Utah residents have steadily risen.
Ecology
Oct 20, 2025
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