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 insistent buzzing at sunset followed by itchy, spotted legs. Here in Denmark, mosquitoes are mostly an annoying—but generally harmless—nuisance. That is far from the case in many parts of the world.
Environment
Nov 26, 2025
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Mosquito-borne diseases, including dengue, Zika, and yellow fever, continue to pose a significant global health threat, infecting millions of people annually. Yet current control efforts face growing challenges, driven by ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 14, 2025
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A fungal infection solution could help eliminate up to 86% of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, offering a powerful new tool in the global fight against the disease, according to new research.
Ecology
Nov 13, 2025
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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 malaria. ...
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 study ...
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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31
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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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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