Publications

Infectious disease modeling is a critical skill, and although not all students will model infectious diseases directly, many will become the consumer of such models and will need to understand the models conceptually. This makes infectious disease modeling a useful tool for all students to learn, but many students in […]

Parasites often alter host physiology and behavior, which can enhance predation risk for infected hosts. Higher consumption of parasitized prey can in turn lead to a less parasitized prey population (the healthy herd hypothesis). Loxothylacus panopaei is a non-native castrating barnacle parasite on the mud crab Eurypanopeus depressus along the […]

Many pathogens, including those infecting insects, are transmitted via dormant stages shed into the environment, where they must persist until encountering a susceptible host. Understanding how abiotic conditions influence environmental persistence and how these factors influence pathogen spread are crucial for predicting patterns of infection risk. Here, Richard Hall and […]

Utility analysis is quite useful in quantifying direct and indirect species relations in a compartmental ecosystems model, regardless of its size or complexity. It serves as a basis for the formulation of system-wide synergism and mutualism measures. A significant issue that limits the applicability of utility analysis is that its […]

Environmental factors influence the dynamics of mosquito-borne disease transmission. Most models used to predict mosquito-borne disease transmission incorporate climate data collected at coarser scales than mosquitoes typically experience. Climate conditions can vary greatly between indoor and outdoor environments, and are influenced by landscape features. We conducted a field experiment with […]

Understanding the drivers of recent Zika, dengue, and chikungunya epidemics is a major public health priority. Temperature may play an important role because it affects virus transmission by mosquitoes, through its effects on mosquito development, survival, reproduction, and biting rates as well as the rate at which mosquitoes acquire and […]

When infection alters host behaviour such that the pathogen benefits, the behaviour is termed a manipulation. There are several examples of this fascinating phenomenon in many different systems. Vector-borne diseases are no exception. In some instances, as the term implies, pathogens directly interfere with host processes to control behaviour. However, […]

The reemergence and growing burden of mosquito-borne virus infections have incited public fear and growing research efforts to understand the mechanisms of infection-associated health outcomes and to provide better approaches for mosquito vector control. While efforts to develop therapeutics, vaccines, and novel genetic mosquito-control technologies are underway, many important underlying […]

Illuminating the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of parasites is one of the most pressing issues facing modern science, and is critical for basic science, the global economy, and human health. Extremely important to this effort are data on the disease-causing organisms of wild animal hosts (including viruses, bacteria, protozoa, helminths, […]

Mercury is a pervasive heavy metal that often enters the environment from anthropogenic sources such as gold mining and agriculture. Chronic exposure to mercury can impair immune function, reducing the ability of animals to resist or recover from infections. How mercury influences immunity and susceptibility remains unknown for bats, which […]