Latest Vector Stories

Selexis’ co-founder and scientific advisory board member, Nicolas Mermod, PhD, Professor of Biotechnology at Faculty of Biology and Medicine of the University of Lausanne, will present, “Engineering CHO Cells and Vectors for Improved Transgene Integration and Antibody Production.” Geneva, Switzerland (PRWEB) April 19, 2012 Selexis SA announced today the Company’s co-founder will present data on the Company’s core technology at the 13th Annual Cell Culture Engineering conference...

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have, for the first time, shown that infection with dengue virus turns on mosquito genes that makes them hungrier and better feeders, and therefore possibly more likely to spread the disease to humans. Specifically, they found that dengue virus infection of the mosquito's salivary gland triggered a response that involved genes of the insect's immune system, feeding behavior and the mosquito's ability to sense odors. The...

RICHMOND, Va., March 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- For more than 250,000 Americans, the bite of a deer tick meant the start of a life changing disease. Record warm temperatures and a decrease in the food supply for the deer ticks that carry the disease mean a surge in Lyme disease cases this year, according to Lyme experts. Mosquito Squad, the country's largest tick elimination firm, (http://www.mosquitosquad.com) is on watch and has six tips to help homeowners tick-proof their...

[ Watch the Video ] Repellant overwhelms their odor sensors, scaring them away In a small, narrow, temperature-controlled lab room at Vanderbilt University live some of the most deadly and dangerous animals in the world. "These are Anopheles mosquitoes that still think that they're in Central Africa. We won't tell them any different," says Laurence Zwiebel, professor of molecular biology and pharmacology. Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes can be killers. In warmer climates, the...

Squirrels and raccoons will give up food to avoid ticks Here’s a riddle: What’s the difference between a tick and a lion? The answer used to be that a tick is a parasite and the lion is a predator. But now those definitions don’t seem as secure as they once did. A tick also hunts its prey, following vapor trails of carbon dioxide, and consumes host tissues (blood is considered a tissue), so at least in terms of its interactions with other creatures, it is like a lion — a very...

They are tiny, ugly, disease-carrying little blood-suckers that most people have never seen or heard of, but a new discovery in a one-of-a-kind fossil shows that “bat flies” have been doing their noxious business with bats for at least 20 million years. For bats, that’s a long time to deal with a parasite doing its best vampire impression. Maybe it is nature’s revenge on the vampire bat, an aggressive blood consumer in its own right that will feed on anything from sheep to dogs and...

As mosquito-borne viral diseases like West Nile fever, dengue fever, and chikungunya fever spread rapidly around the globe, scientists at Virginia Tech are working to understand the mosquito's immune system and how the viral pathogens that cause these diseases are able to overcome it to be transmitted to human and animal hosts. In nearly every part of the world, humans and animals experience high levels of morbidity and mortality after being bitten by mosquitoes infected with viruses. More...

Lyme disease is the most commonly reported vector-borne disease in the United States, with the majority of cases occurring in the Northeast. It has been three decades since the agent of the disease, the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, and the ticks that vector it were identified. However, the number of Lyme disease cases have steadily increased. In a new article appearing in the forthcoming issuue of the Journal of Medical Entomology called "What Do We Need to Know About Disease Ecology...

Climate differences have less impact on the transmission of blood parasites than expected Seabirds often live in large colonies in very confined spaces. Parasites, such as fleas and ticks, take advantage of this ideal habitat with its rich supply of nutrition. As a result, they can transmit blood parasites like avian malaria to the birds. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell and a team of international colleagues have investigated whether this affects all...

Malaria Revealed As Ancient, Adaptive And Persistent Foe One of the most comprehensive analyses yet done of the ancient history of insect-borne disease concludes for the first time that malaria is not only native to the New World, but it has been present long before humans existed and has evolved through birds and monkeys. The findings, presented in a recent issue of American Entomologist by researchers from Oregon State University, are based on the study of insect specimens preserved...