Loss of habitat in Australian bushfires may drive Hendra- and Lyssa-infected bats closer to human populations
Researchers studied bushfire incidences from 2012 to 2020 within eastern Australia, and found that the severe megafires that occurred during 2019-20 were much larger and more concentrated across the landscape than in previous years.
Image: Matt Palmer, Unsplash
Australian megafires burn critical habitat of Vulnerable virus-harboring bats
Sara LaJeunesse
July 15, 2021
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. The severe megafires that occurred in eastern Australia during 2019-20 were much larger and more concentrated across the landscape than in previous years, according to a study by researchers at Penn State and the University of New South Wales. The unprecedented fires included the burning of 34% of the foraging habitat of grey-headed flying foxes, which are known to transmit deadly Lyssa and Hendra viruses.
Behavior limits COVID-19 spread between University and community
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Data scientists to discuss how to understand, more effectively control diseases
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Vector-borne diseases shaped human history and reveal race disparities
In December 2015, a yellow fever outbreak began in Luanda, Angola. This outbreak was the largest reported in Angola during the last 30-years. In a new study, researchers examine the ways in which vector-borne diseases, like yellow fever, have shaped society and culture.
Image: Rebecca Hall, CDC
Vector-borne diseases shaped human history and reveal race disparities
February 02, 2021
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Vector-borne diseases (VBDs), such as plague, malaria and yellow fever, have significantly shaped society and culture, according to an international team of researchers. In a study published in Ecology Letters on Jan. 27, the team used historical evidence interpreted through an ecological lens to illustrate how VBDs have influenced human history, with particular attention to how VBDs have reinforced and exacerbated racism.
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Today, the average American is unlikely to spend time worrying about malaria. Although the disease is commonly perceived to be restricted to other parts of the world, it played a significant role in shaping American history. It even helped turn the tide of the American Revolutionary War by infecting so many British soldiers that General Cornwallis was forced to surrender at Yorktown.
First-year students in a 2019 introductory seminar class led by Erin Mordecai, an assistant professor of biology in the School of Humanities and Sciences (H&S), delved into this and other historical examples of how vector-borne diseases - those caused by infectious pathogens spread by living organisms or vectors - influenced human history. Throughout the course, they collaborated on a paper highlighting various trends in which these illnesses impacted historical societies. Their findings have now been published in the latest issue of the journal