Influenza A viruses (IAVs) pose a major public health threat due to their wide host range and pandemic potential. Pigs have been proposed as “mixing vessels” for avian, swine, and human IAVs, signific
Tick-borne diseases are increasingly common in North America, with human risk related to the abundance of infected ticks. This study analyzed 2,017 black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) collected ove
Research objective:Among the ecological functions and services of biodiversity is the potential buffering of diseases through dilution effects where increased biodiversity results in a reduction in di
In the tropics, ticks parasitize many classes of vertebrate hosts. However, because many tropical tick species are only identifiable in the adult stage, and these adults usually parasitize mammals, mo
The âdilution effectâ (DE) hypothesis predicts that diverse host communities will show reduced disease. The underlying causes of pathogen dilution are complex, because they involve non-additive (d
