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.
Rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus type 2 is a terrible way for any animal to die, especially creatures as gentle as these. Highly contagious and lethal, it threatens wild and domestic rabbits. First detected in the United ...
Veterinary medicine
Apr 9, 2026
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13
Researchers at Umeå University show how tick-borne viruses remodel human cells into virus factories, using an advanced microscopy method. The findings provide new insight into how the virus replicates and matures, knowledge ...
Biotechnology
Apr 7, 2026
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23
Parks are vital public spaces. This is especially true if you're a parent with energetic children, or an office worker searching for a peaceful lunch spot.
Ecology
Mar 29, 2026
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17
It's fairly common for members of the public to ask bug experts if ticks that hitchhike into a house on people or dogs can actually survive indoors for any length of time. A new study provides the first scientific evidence ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 27, 2026
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55
Anopheles darlingi mosquitoes—a major vector of malaria in South America—are evolving in response to insecticides, which may make them harder to kill and malaria more difficult to control, according to a new study led by ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 26, 2026
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8
Wild bumblebees serve as key hosts for acute bee paralysis virus. While the virus appears to cause little harm to bumblebees, infection is usually fatal to honeybees. Until now, it was assumed that honeybees were the key ...
Ecology
Mar 24, 2026
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420
Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses), such as dengue and Zika viruses, transmit widely across the globe, posing threats to human health and biosecurity. They spread through the bites of arthropod vectors, moving between ...
Ecology
Mar 23, 2026
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8
Undergraduate Chris Zuo sent me the note "Four minutes is too long" along with photos of countless mosquito bites on his bare skin. This full-body massacre wasn't the result of a camping trip gone awry. He'd spent that limited ...
Ecology
Mar 21, 2026
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80
Researchers have known for decades that female mosquitoes—the ones responsible for the itchy and irritating bites that can also transmit disease—lose their desire to bite humans for several days after feeding, as they digest ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 20, 2026
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14
A mosquito finds its target with the help of certain cues in its environment, such as a person's silhouette and the carbon dioxide they exhale. Now researchers at MIT and Georgia Tech have found that these visual and chemical ...
Ecology
Mar 18, 2026
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20
