Publications

Corresponding author: Daniel J. Becker, daniel.becker3@montana.edu Adapted from a summary provided by Public Library of Science The bacteria Bartonella causes endocarditis, a possibly lethal illness in humans and livestock. There are large amounts of vampire bats infected with Bartonella in Central and South America, and with their diet consisting of […]

Corresponding Author: Claire S. Teitelbaum, claire.teitelbaum@gmail.com Summary Author: Leah Crone, lec62627@uga.edu Many animal species have specific behaviors which occur in a group throughout generations, also known as animal cultures. These behaviors are taught to the young in a group by mimicking the actions of the older, more experienced individuals. With […]

Corresponding Authors: Veronika I. Zarnitsyna, vizarni@emory.edu and Rustom Antia, rantia@emory.edu Summary Author: Leah Crone, lec62627@uga.edu For most pathogens, vaccinations are used to reduce the spread of an infection and are supported by public policy normally. However, with pathogens such as influenza there are multiple strains, so a team including CEID […]

Corresponding Author: Myung-Sun Chun, jdchun@snu.ac.kr Summary Author: Leah Crone, lec62627@uga.edu Feral cats often receive supplemental feeding from humans in urban environments.  These humans can be considered “cat caretakers.” With an expected positive correlation between increased cat population density and cat caretaker activity, there is concern that more densely populated areas […]

Corresponding author: Maureen Kessler, maureenkkessler@gmail.com Due to land use change, many pteropodids, a family of old world fruit bats, are forced to alter their foraging behavior, causing them to move to regions that are in close proximity to humans. This leads to more human-bat interactions and a greater risk of zoonotic […]

Corresponding Author: Michelle Evans, mvevans@uga.edu Summary Author: Leah Crone, lec62627@uga.edu Mosquitoes are largely affected by the environment in which they live as larva.  The surroundings that a larva experiences may influence characteristics in the adult mosquito, a phenomenon known as a carry-over effect. While studies have shown that the larval environment […]

Corresponding Author: Daniel Becker, daniel.becker3@montana.edu Urban parks, backyards, landfills, and agricultural fields provide wildlife with access to novel food sources. Food provided by humans in these locations can dramatically alter patterns of animal site fidelity and movement between habitats, with consequences for pathogen spread across the landscape. To better understand […]

Corresponding Author: Tobias S. Brett Recent literature has highlighted the potential to predict disease outbreak through early-warning signals (EWS), summary statistics which undergo characteristic changes as an epidemic transition is approached. In these transitions, disease transmission can shift from limited, stuttering chains of transmission to large-scale outbreaks. Thus successful prediction […]

Corresponding Author: Eamon B. O’Dea, odea35@gmail.com An important component of predicting disease emergence is the ability to assess the distance to epidemic thresholds, the critical number of susceptible hosts needed for an epidemic to occur. Monitoring this threshold allows researchers to confirm the emergence of an epidemic and take action […]

Corresponding Author:  Andreas Handel, andreas.handel@gmail.com For infectious diseases, especially diseases that are spread from person to person by droplets in the air produced by coughing or sneezing, determining the contact rate and tracing the contact network provides important information for implementing effective health interventions. One such disease, tuberculosis (TB), is […]