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.
As summer kicks into full gear and people are spending more time outside, there's one thing on many people's minds—ticks. Tick season is starting earlier and lasting longer, and ticks are popping up in areas they haven't ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 9, 2025
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Mosquito-borne diseases kill more than 700,000 people every year, according to the World Health Organization, and the mosquitoes that spread the disease are difficult to control. Most species have developed resistance to ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 7, 2025
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Washington State University researchers have discovered how the bacteria that cause anaplasmosis and Lyme disease hijack cellular processes in ticks to ensure their survival and spread to new hosts, including humans.
Cell & Microbiology
Jun 30, 2025
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25
In a global study, scientists have uncovered far greater diversity and flexibility in mosquito feeding patterns than previously thought, challenging long-held assumptions about how the disease-carrying insects select their ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 20, 2025
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69
A flesh-eating parasitic fly is invading North and Central America. The consequences could be severe for the cattle industry, but this parasite is not picky—it will infest a wide range of hosts, including humans and their ...
Agriculture
Jun 16, 2025
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1
Ticks pose a grave risk to public health, with nearly half a million cases of the tick-borne Lyme disease treated every year in the United States.
Plants & Animals
Jun 12, 2025
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5
Even with today's advanced agricultural technologies, plant diseases can still be extremely devastating to crops, causing billions of dollars in losses worldwide every year. Begomoviruses represent a prominent example of ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Jun 9, 2025
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10
New research from scientists at Trinity College Dublin strongly implies that heat waves have a major influence on the spread of many diseases—and that many existing predictive models have overlooked this complexity. Specifically, ...
Environment
Jun 4, 2025
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31
Researchers have caught and analyzed more than 90,000 mosquitoes in Fiji and Indonesia to find more effective ways to protect some of the world's most vulnerable populations from harmful diseases such as dengue, Zika and ...
Environment
Jun 2, 2025
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0
Bird flu cases are rising rapidly in the U.S. and around the world. A new study traces how the disease spread over the last two decades from Asia to Europe, Africa and the Americas. New bird species, from pelicans to peregrine ...
Environment
Mar 25, 2025
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