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.
Argentine scientists on Tuesday began collecting rodents in the woods around Ushuaia to search for carriers of hantavirus in the area from which the virus-stricken MV Hondius set sail.
Ecology
May 20, 2026
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9
Scientists attempting to determine whether or not hantavirus is present in Argentina's Ushuaia on Monday laid the very first traps to catch rodents potentially carrying the disease, AFP journalists observed.
Ecology
May 19, 2026
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A scientific mission was set to kick off the search Monday for rodents that may be hantavirus carriers after an outbreak on a cruise ship departed this region at the southern tip of Argentina on April 1.
Ecology
May 18, 2026
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13
The deadliest animals are not lions, spiders or snakes, but the tiny mosquitoes that suck our blood, make us itchy and infect us with disease.
Ecology
May 12, 2026
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29
Brazilian scientist Luciano Moreira tenderly handles a glass box of swarming mosquitoes infected with a bacterium that blocks the transmission of dengue.
Ecology
May 12, 2026
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9
Ever felt like mosquitoes bite you while ignoring everyone else? Scientists are now making progress in deciphering the complex chemical cocktail that makes particular people more enticing to these disease-spreading bloodsuckers.
Plants & Animals
May 12, 2026
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1896
As a child, the mere glimpse of a spider used to send me screaming and running for cover. I was convinced that spiders were my enemies. I thought they were out to get me.
Plants & Animals
May 11, 2026
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39
Garlic is not a substance that most people consider an aphrodisiac. It turns out that mosquitoes agree. In fact, a new Yale study finds that garlic also functions as a de facto birth control for mosquitoes and other winged ...
Molecular & Computational biology
May 7, 2026
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96
Ph.D. student Hanne Kloster at the University of Agder (UiA) is behind the first Norwegian study to look at three tick-borne diseases in dogs simultaneously, covering the whole country. The paper is published in the journal ...
Plants & Animals
May 7, 2026
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12
Scientists at Keele University have created the first detailed map of the genetic "switches" that control reproduction in disease-carrying insects such as Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito species most responsible for malaria ...
Biotechnology
May 5, 2026
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10
