Digital Commons Network^™

Case Of Human Orthohantavirus Infection, Michigan, Usa, 2021, Samuel M Goodfellow, Robert A Nofchissey, Dustin Arsnoe, Chunyan Ye, Seonghyeon Lee, Jieun Park, Won-Keun Kim, Kartik Chandran, Shannon L M Whitmer, John D Klena, Jonathan W Dyal, Trevor Shoemaker, Diana Riner, Mary Grace Stobierski, Kimberly Signs, Steven B Bradfute

Student and Faculty Publications

Orthohantaviruses cause hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome; most cases occur in the southwest region of the United States. We discuss a clinical case of orthohantavirus infection in a 65-year-old woman in Michigan and the phylogeographic link of partial viral fragments from the patient and rodents captured near the presumed site of infection.

Pathogenicity In Chickens And Turkeys Of A 2021 United States H5n1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Clade 2.3.4.4b Wild Bird Virus Compared To Two Previous H5n8 Clade 2.3.4.4 Viruses, Mary J. Pantin-Jackwood, Erica Spackman, Christina Leyson, Sungsu Youk, Scott A. Lee, Linda M. Moon, Mia K. Torchetti, Mary L. Killian, Julianna B. Lenoch, Darrell R. Kapczynski, David E. Swayne, David L. Suarez

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs) of subtype H5 of the Gs/GD/96 lineage remain a major threat to poultry due to endemicity in wild birds. H5N1 HPAIVs from this lineage were detected in 2021 in the United States (US) and since then have infected many wild and domestic birds. We evaluated the pathobiology of an early US H5N1 HPAIV (clade 2.3.4.4b, 2021) and two H5N8 HPAIVs from previous outbreaks in the US (clade 2.3.4.4c, 2014) and Europe (clade 2.3.4.4b, 2016) in chickens and turkeys. Differences in clinical signs, mean death times (MDTs), and virus transmissibility were found between chickens and …

Entre La Exclusión Y La Empatía: Conocimientos Y Sentimientos De La Juventud Judía De Buenos Aires Sobre La Memoria Colectiva De “La Comunidad Judía” En La Última Dictadura Argentina (1976-1983) / Between Exclusion And Empathy: Knowledge And Sentiments Of Jewish Youth In Buenos Aires About The Collective Memory Of The “The Jewish Community” During The Argentine Dictatorship (1976-1983), Rachel Colson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La última dictadura cívico-militar en Argentina es tanto parte del pasado como del futuro. El “Proceso de Reorganización Nacional” instalado por las Fuerzas Armadas trajo opresión política y violencia extrema hacia la gente en contra del régimen. Desde su fin, la sociedad ha enfrentado el problema de cómo recordar esta época. La memoria forma parte importante de la identidad social argentina, pero es complicada debido a la experiencia de determinados grupos durante la dictadura. En estos años, los judíos sufrieron una victimización especial dentro de los campos clandestinos de detención—los sitios de tortura y desaparición—de las Fuerzas Armadas. Mientras algunos …

Limited Accumulation And Persistence Of An Influenza A Virus In Tadpole Snails (Physa Spp.), Paul T. Oesterle, J. Jeffrey Root, Darcy S.O. Mora, Heather Schneider, Alan B. Franklin, Kathryn P. Huyvaert

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Waterfowl infected with avian influenza A viruses (IAVs) shed infectious virus into aquatic environments, providing a mechanism for transmission among waterfowl, while also exposing the entire aquatic ecosystem to the virus. Aquatic invertebrates such as freshwater snails are likely exposed to IAVs in the water column and sediment. Freshwater snails comprise a significant portion of some waterfowl species’ diets, so this trophic interaction may serve as a novel route of IAV transmission. In these experiments, tadpole snails (Physa spp.) were exposed to a low-pathogenicity IAV (H3N8) to determine whether snails can accumulate the virus and, if so, how long virus …

Electric Motor And Transmission Integration For Light-Duty Electric Vehicles: A 2023 Benchmarking Perspective And Component Sizing For A Fleet Approach, Darrell Robinette

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 2

A review of past, current, and emerging electric vehicle (EV) propulsion system technologies and their integration is the focus of this paper, namely, the matching of electric motor (EM) and transmission (TRM) to meet basic requirements and performance targets. The fundaments of EM and TRM matching from a tractive effort and a vehicle dynamics perspective are provided as an introductory context to available or near-production propulsion system products available from OEM and Tier 1 suppliers. Engineering data and details regarding EM and TRM combinations are detailed with a specific focus on volumetric and mass density. Evolutionary trends in EM and …

Adenoviral-Vectored Epigraph Vaccine Elicits Robust, Durable, And Protective Immunity Against H3 Influenza A Virus In Swine, Erika M. Petro-Turnquist, Matthew J. Pekarek, Nicholas Jeanjaquet, Cedric Wooledge, David J. Steffen, Hiep Vu, Eric A. Weaver

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

Current methods of vaccination against swine Influenza A Virus (IAV-S) in pigs are infrequently updated, induce strain-specific responses, and have a limited duration of protection. Here, we characterize the onset and duration of adaptive immune responses after vaccination with an adenoviral-vectored Epigraph vaccine. In this longitudinal study we observed robust and durable antibody responses that remained above protective titers six months after vaccination. We further identified stable levels of antigen-specific T cell responses that remained detectable in the absence of antigen stimulation. Antibody isotyping revealed robust class switching from IgM to IgG induced by Epigraph vaccination, while the commercial comparator …

Nipah Virus: A Rare Infection On The Rise, Vivian Vang, Shyanne Garrett, Presztyigei Pachan, Myrna Rezcallah

Research and Scholarship Symposium Posters

Nipah virus has caused recurrent outbreaks in Bangladesh and Western India and the most recent outbreak in Kerala in 2018 was the first recorded in Southern India. Some of these outbreaks involved human-to-human transmission, showing the risk of this virus becoming more widespread. It is however a zoonotic disease so it can spread between animals and people. Fruit bats of the Pteropus genus, or flying foxes, are the main reservoir for NiV. Agricultural practices are also key factors in the disease spreading to humans. For example, in Malaysia, the first reported Nipah outbreak led to 265 human cases and 105 …

Lassa Fever: From A Nigerian Town To A Global Threat, Ranya Almasaoudy, Joshelin G. Lopez, Juliana A. Rounds, Margarita Avlarado

Research and Scholarship Symposium Posters

Lassa fever is associated with high morbidity and mortality rate. This is due to the primary host of Lassa virus being a rodent of the genus Mastomy’s, also referred to as ‘multimammate rat’. Once infected, Mastomy’s rats do not become ill but can shed the virus in their urine and feces. Thus, there has been a call for educational interventions to improve the knowledge of Lassa fever among community members. It is important to point out that health workers have a prominent role to play in realizing this. In conclusion, Lassa Fever hasn't been a main global threat in the …

Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever: A Tick-Borne Killer, Deisy Reyes Andrade, Sofia Dodge, Basheer Alam

Research and Scholarship Symposium Posters

Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is a tick-borne virus. It was first identified in Crimea in 1944 and was later detected in Congo in 1969. It is endemic where it is mainly located in regions such as Africa, Europe, and Asia. CCHF is primarily transmitted through the bite of an infected tick, however direct contact with bodily fluids can also be another route of transmission. Specifically, Hyalomma ticks are the main reservoirs and vectors of CCHF. Symptoms may range from asymptomatic to severe development of hemorrhage, with a fatality rate of up to 40%. Initial symptoms include headaches, high fevers, body …

Editorial: What Does Not Kill You Makes You Stronger: Interactions Between Environmental Stresses And Microbial Virulence, Liang Wang, Ling-Jun Zhan, Michael J. Wise

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The intriguing sit-and-wait hypothesis predicts that “virulence should be positively correlated with durability in the external environment because high durability reduces the dependence of transmission on host mobility” (Walther and Ewald, 2004) (Figure 1). Since the hypothesis was first proposed in the late 20th century (Ewald, 1983), both theoretical and computational studies have been reporting the relationships between environmental durability and microbial virulence (Sundberg et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2017, 2018, 2019a,b, 2020; Rafaluk-Mohr, 2019; Li et al., 2021) [...].

H7n9 Influenza A Virus Transmission In A Multispecies Barnyard Model, Angela M. Bosco-Lauth, Anna Rodriguez, Rachel M. Maison, Stephanie M. Porter, J. Jeffrey Root

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Influenza A viruses are a diverse group of pathogens that have been responsible for millions of human and avian deaths throughout history. Here, we illustrate the transmission potential of H7N9 influenza A virus between Coturnix quail (Coturnix sp.), domestic ducks (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus), chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus), and house sparrows (Passer domesticus) co-housed in an artificial barnyard setting. In each of four replicates, individuals from a single species were infected with the virus. Quail shed virus orally and were a source of infection for both chickens and ducks. Infected chickens transmitted the virus to quail but not to ducks or …

Mpox (Formally Known As Monkeypox), Molly O'Neill, Tricia Lepage, Vanessa Bester, Henry Yoon, Frederick Browne, Eric C. Nemec

Physician Assistant Studies Student Publications

Mpox originates from the Mpox virus, which belongs to the Orthopoxvirus genus of the Poxviridae family.1, 2, 3 Other Orthopoxvirus species include the variola virus (the now eradicated smallpox virus), vaccinia virus (a virus used in the creation of the smallpox vaccine), and cowpox virus.1, 2, 3 The identified clades consist of the West African clade and the Congo Basin clade, each with varying fatality rates of 1% and 10%, respectively.1, 2, 3, 4 Since the eradication of smallpox in 1980, the Mpox virus has emerged as the most relevant Orthopoxvirus infection in humans.

Social Network Analysis Of White-Tailed Deer Scraping Behavior: Implications For Disease Transmission, Michael E. Egan, Kim M. Pepin, Justin Fischer, Scott R. Hygnstrom, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Guillaume Bastille-Rousseau

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Host contact structure affects pathogen transmission in host populations, but many measures of host contact do not distinguish contacts that are relevant to pathogen transmission from those that are not. Scrapes are sites for chemical communication by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) during the breeding season and potential sites of transmission of prions, the causative agent of chronic wasting disease (CWD). Scrape-related behaviors vary in their probability of transmitting prions to or from the environment, suggesting that behavior be combined with contact structure to better reflect potential heterogeneity in prion transmission at scrapes. We recorded visits and behaviors by …

Genomic Epidemiology And Transmission Dynamics Of Recurrent Clostridioides Difficile Infection In Western Australia, Daniel R. Knight, Korakrit Imwattana, Deirdre A. Collins, Su-Chen Lim, Stacey Hong, Papanin Putsathit, Thomas V. Riley

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Recurrent cases of Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI) remain one of the most common and serious challenges faced in the management of CDI. The accurate distinction between a relapse (caused by infection with the same strain) and reinfection (caused by a new strain) has implications for infection control and prevention, and patient therapy. Here, we used whole-genome sequencing to investigate the epidemiology of 94 C. difficile isolates from 38 patients with rCDI in Western Australia. The C. difficile strain population comprised 13 sequence types (STs) led by ST2 (PCR ribotype (RT) 014, 36.2 %), ST8 (RT002, 19.1 %) and ST34 (RT056, …

Managing Tuberculosis In Refugee Populations, Roselyn Fierkens

Senior Honors Theses

Tuberculosis (TB) is an airborne-transmitted infectious disease, responsible for more global deaths than HIV. Multidrug-resistant strains are developing, which heightens the need for swift eradication. Current data states that 71.4% of all TB cases in the United States occur in foreign-born individuals, so populations traveling from TB endemic areas are a key target population for prevention strategies. Various screening procedures exist, but no successful standard is in place. Beyond prevention and treatment strategies, adaptations to cultural communication differences are integral to successful medical interventions. This synthesis of TB pathophysiology, treatments, risk factors, and cultural considerations is intended for use in …

Transmission Roles Of Symptomatic And Asymptomatic Covid-19 Cases: A Modelling Study, Jianbin Tan, Yang Ge, Leonardo Martinez, Jimin Sun, Changwei Li, Adrianna Westbrook, Enfu Chen, Jinren Pan, Yang Li, Wei Cheng, Feng Ling, Zhinping Chen, Ye Shen, Hui Huang

Faculty Publications

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) asymptomatic cases are hard to identify, impeding transmissibility estimation. The value of COVID-19 transmissibility is worth further elucidation for key assumptions in further modelling studies. Through a population-based surveillance network, we collected data on 1342 confirmed cases with a 90-days follow-up for all asymptomatic cases. An age-stratified compartmental model containing contact information was built to estimate the transmissibility of symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 cases. The difference in transmissibility of a symptomatic and asymptomatic case depended on age and was most distinct for the middle-age groups. The asymptomatic cases had a 66.7% lower transmissibility rate than symptomatic …

Multiple Generations Of Antibiotic Exposure And Isolation Influence Host Fitness And The Microbiome In A Model Zooplankton Species, Reilly O. Cooper, Sarah Tjards, Jessica Rischling, David T. Nguyen, Clayton E. Cressler

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background

Chronic antibiotic exposure impacts host health through changes to the microbiome, increasing disease risk and reducing the functional repertoire of community members. The detrimental effects of antibiotic perturbation on microbiome structure and function after one host generation of exposure have been well-studied. However, much less is understood about the multigenerational effects of antibiotic exposure and how the microbiome may recover across host generations.

Results

In this study, we examined microbiome composition and host fitness across five generations of exposure to a suite of three antibiotics in the model zooplankton host Daphnia magna. By utilizing a split-brood design where …

Whole-Genome Sequencing Links Clostridium (Clostridioides) Difficile In A Single Hospital To Diverse Environmental Sources In The Community, Su-Chen Lim, Deirdre Collins, Korakrit Imwattana, Daniel R. Knight, Sicilia Perumalsamy, Natasza M.R. Hain-Saunders, Papanin Putsathit, David Speers, Thomas Riley

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Aims

To investigate if Clostridium (Clostridioides) difficile infection (CDI), traditionally thought of as hospital-acquired, can be genomically linked to hospital or community environmental sources, and to define possible importation routes from the community to the hospital.

Methods and Results

In 2019, C. difficile was isolated from 89/300 (29.7%) floor and 96/300 (32.0%) shoe sole samples at a tertiary hospital in Western Australia. Non-toxigenic C. difficile ribotype (RT) 010 predominated among floor (96.6%) and shoe sole (73.2%) isolates, while toxigenic RT 014/020 was most prevalent among contemporaneous clinical cases (33.0%) at the hospital. Whole-genome sequencing and high-resolution core genome …

The Public/Private Distinction In Public Health: The Case Of Covid-19, Aziza Ahmed, Jason Jackson

Faculty Scholarship

In this Essay, we argue that the paradigm of the public/private distinction is implicitly operating as a primary frame in the public health response to the pandemic. The public/private distinction is particularly evident in the guidance around masking and other risk-mitigation policies and advice issued by public health agencies. This public health approach reifies the notion of the home as an exceptional private space that exists outside of the possibility of COVID-19 transmission, obscuring the reality of the high risk of transmission in some households. 8 We argue that the manifestation of the public/private distinction in the COVID-19 response is …

Characterisation Of Drug-Resistant Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Mutations And Transmission In Pakistan, Gary Napier, Anwar Sheed Khan, Abdul Jabbar, Muhammad Tahir Khan, Sajid Ali, Muhammad Qasim, Noor Mohammad, Rumina Hasan, Zahra Hasan, Susana Campino

Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is a high-burden disease in Pakistan, with multi-drug (MDR) and extensive-drug (XDR) resistance, complicating infection control. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of M. tuberculosis is being used to infer lineages (strain-types), drug resistance mutations, and transmission patterns-all informing infection control and clinical decision making. Here we analyse WGS data on 535 M. tuberculosis isolates sourced across Pakistan between years 2003 and 2020, to understand the circulating strain-types and mutations related to 12 anti-TB drugs, as well as identify transmission clusters. Most isolates belonged to lineage 3 (n = 397; 74.2%) strain-types, and were MDR (n = …

A Model For Leveraging Animal Movement To Understand Spatio-Temporal Disease Dynamics, Mark Q. Wilber, Anni Yang, Raoul Boughton, Kezia R. Manlove, Ryan S. Miller, Kim M. Pepin, George Wittemyer

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The ongoing explosion of fine-resolution movement data in animal systems provides a unique opportunity to empirically quantify spatial, temporal and individual variation in transmission risk and improve our ability to forecast disease outbreaks. However, we lack a generalizable model that can leverage movement data to quantify transmission risk and how it affects pathogen invasion and persistence on heterogeneous landscapes. We developed a flexible model ‘Movement-driven modelling of spatio-temporal infection risk’ (MoveSTIR) that leverages diverse data on animal movement to derive metrics of direct and indirect contact by decomposing transmission into constituent processes of contact formation and duration and pathogen deposition …

Shell Disorder Models Detect That Omicron Has Harder Shells With Attenuation But Is Not A Descendant Of The Wuhan-Hu-1 Sars-Cov-2, Gerard Kian-Meng Goh, A. Keith Dunker, James A. Foster, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

Before the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant emergence, shell disorder models (SDM) suggested that an attenuated precursor from pangolins may have entered humans in 2017 or earlier. This was based on a shell disorder analysis of SARS-CoV-1/2 and pangolin-Cov-2017. The SDM suggests that Omicron is attenuated with almost identical N (inner shell) disorder as pangolin-CoV-2017 (N-PID (percentage of intrinsic disorder): 44.8% vs. 44.9%—lower than other variants). The outer shell disorder (M-PID) of Omicron is lower than that of other variants and pangolin-CoV-2017 (5.4% vs. 5.9%). COVID-19-related CoVs have the lowest M-PIDs (hardest outer shell) among all CoVs. This is likely to be …

Would New Sars-Cov-2 Variants Change The War Against Covid-19?, Elrashdy M. Redwan, Fatma Elrashdy, Alaa A.A. Aljabali, Wagner Baetas-Da-Cruz, Debmalya Barh, Adam M. Brufsky, Sk. Sarif Hassan, Kenneth Lundstrom, Ángel Serrano-Aroca, Kazuo Takayama, Murtaza M. Tambuwala, Bruce D. Uhal, Vladimir N. Uversky

Molecular Medicine Faculty Publications

The scientific, private, and industrial sectors use a wide variety of technological platforms available to achieve protection against SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), including vaccines. However, the virus evolves continually into new highly virulent variants, which might overcome the protection provided by vaccines and may re-expose the population to infections. Mass vaccinations should be continued in combination with more or less mandatory non-pharmaceutical interventions. Therefore, the key questions to be answered are: (i) How to identify the primary and secondary infections of SARS-CoV-2? (ii) Why are neutralizing antibodies not long-lasting in both cases of natural infections and post-vaccinations? …

Tick Transmission Of Borrelia Burgdorferi To The Murine Host Is Not Influenced By Environmentally Acquired Midgut Microbiota, Sukanya Narasimhan, Nallakkandi Rajeevan, Morven Graham, Ming-Jie Wu, Kathleen Deponte, Solenne Marion, Orlanne Masson, Anya J. O'Neal, Daniel E. Sonenshine, Erol Fikrig

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

Ixodes scapularis is the predominant tick vector of Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme disease, in the USA. Molecular interactions between the tick and B. burgdorferi orchestrate the migration of spirochetes from the midgut to the salivary glands—critical steps that precede transmission to the vertebrate host. Over the last decade, research efforts have invoked a potential role for the tick microbiome in modulating tick-pathogen interactions.

Results

Using multiple strategies to perturb the microbiome composition of B. burgdorferi-infected nymphal ticks, we observe that changes in the microbiome composition do not significantly influence B. burgdorferi migration from the midgut, invasion of …

Learning The Rules Of The Game: The Role Of Generic "You" And "We" In Shaping Children's Interpretations Of Norms, Ariana Orvell, Giulia Elli, Valerie Umscheid, Ella Simmons, Ethan Kross, Susan A. Gelman

Psychology Faculty Research and Scholarship

A critical skill of childhood is learning social norms. We examine whether the generic pronouns “you” and “we,” which frame information as applying to people in general rather than to a specific individual, facilitate this process. In one pre-registered experiment conducted online between 2020 and 2021, children 4- to 9-year-old primarily living in the midwestern U.S. (N = 146, 75 girls, 71 boys, Mage = 7.14, SD = 1.69, 82% White) interpreted actions described with generic pronouns (vs. “I”) as normatively correct and selected the speaker who used generic pronouns as the rule-follower, particularly when generic pronouns were …

Strength In Numbers: Avian Influenza A Virus Transmission To Poultry From A Flocking Passerine, J. Jeffrey Root, Jeremy W. Ellis, Susan A. Shriner

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The effects of flock size of European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) was experimentally manipulated to assess the potential of influenza A virus (IAV; H4N6) transmission from a flocking passerine to bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) through shared food and water resources to mimic starling intrusions into free-range and backyard poultry operations. Of the three starling flock sizes tested (n = 30, n = 20 and n = 10), all successfully transmitted the virus to all or most of the quail in each animal room (6/6, 6/6 and 5/6) by the end of the experimental period, as determined by seroconversion and/or viral RNAshedding. …

Host Range, Biology, And Species Specificity Of Seven-Segmented Influenza Viruses—A Comparative Review On Influenza C And D, Chithra Sreenivasan, Zizhang Sheng, Dan Wang, Feng Li

Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center Faculty Publications

Other than genome structure, influenza C (ICV), and D (IDV) viruses with seven-segmented genomes are biologically different from the eight-segmented influenza A (IAV), and B (IBV) viruses concerning the presence of hemagglutinin–esterase fusion protein, which combines the function of hemagglutinin and neuraminidase responsible for receptor-binding, fusion, and receptor-destroying enzymatic activities, respectively. Whereas ICV with humans as primary hosts emerged nearly 74 years ago, IDV, a distant relative of ICV, was isolated in 2011, with bovines as the primary host. Despite its initial emergence in swine, IDV has turned out to be a transboundary bovine pathogen and a broader host range, …

Transmission Studies And The Composition Of Prokaryotic Communities Associated With Healthy And Diseased Aplysina Cauliformis Sponges Suggest That Aplysina Red Band Syndrome Is A Prokaryotic Polymicrobial Disease, Matteo Monti, Aurora Giorgi, Cole G. Easson, Deborah J. Gochfeld

Faculty and Student Publications

Aplysina cauliformis, the Caribbean purple rope sponge, is commonly affected by Aplysina Red Band Syndrome (ARBS). This transmissible disease manifests as circular lesions with red margins and results in bare spongin fibers. Leptolyngbya spp. appear to be responsible for the characteristic red coloration but transmission studies with a sponge-derived isolate failed to establish disease, leaving the etiology of ARBS unknown. To investigate the cause of ARBS, contact transmission experiments were performed between healthy and diseased sponges separated by filters with varying pore sizes. Transmission occurred when sponges were separated by filters with pore sizes ≥ 2.5 μm, suggesting a prokaryotic …

How Do Genetic Relatedness And Spatial Proximity Shape African Swine Fever Infections In Wild Boar?, Tomasz Podgórski, Kim M. Pepin, Anna Radko, Angelika Podbielska, Magdalena Łyjak, Grzegorz Woźniakowski, Tomasz Borowik

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The importance of social and spatial structuring of wildlife populations for disease spread, though widely recognized, is still poorly understood in many host-pathogen systems. In particular, system-specific kin relationships among hosts can create contact heterogeneities and differential disease transmission rates. Here, we investigate how distance-dependent infection risk is influenced by genetic relatedness in a novel host-pathogen system: wild boar (Sus scrofa) and African swine fever (ASF).We hypothesized that infection risk would correlate positively with proximity and relatedness to ASF-infected individuals but expected those relationships to weaken with the distance between individuals due to decay in contact rates and …

Poor Vector Competence Of The Human Flea, Pulex Irritans, To Transmit Yersinia Pestis, Adélaïde Miarinjara, David M. Bland, James R. Belthoff, B. Joseph Hinnebusch

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: The human flea, Pulex irritans, is widespread globally and has a long association with humans, one of its principal hosts. Its role in plague transmission is still under discussion, although its high prevalence in plague-endemic regions and the presence of infected fleas of this species during plague outbreaks has led to proposals that it has been a significant vector in human-to-human transmission in some historical and present-day epidemiologic situations. However, based on a limited number of studies, P. irritans is considered to be a poor vector and receives very little attention from public health policymakers. In this study …