Social-ecological factors of mosquito-borne virus transmission
In this project, I want to understand the social-ecological factors that influence the receptivity to Zika virus in communities along the Texas-Mexico border. Our team is interested in understanding
Our data show that variation in Aedes aegypti female abundance is correlated to 1) temperature with lower abundance of outdoor mosquito during the winter month and 2) income level with more Aedes aegypti female found indoors in low income neighborhoods. Our next steps are to better understand these climatic and social factors. In this project, I also want to understand the efficiency of autocidial gravid ovitraps (AGO) to reduce mosquito vector abundance and thus disease risk in these communities along the Texas-Mexico border. Our team just started in August 2017 an AGO intervention in 4 of our 8 communities. |
Impact of co-infections in arbovirus systems
I want to perform mosquito co-infection experiments of both avian malaria and insect-specific viruses with West Nile to see how co-circulating pathogens in nature influence the way which mosquitoes transmit West Nile Virus |
Similarly, I want to investigate the impact of insect-specific viruses on Zika virus epidemiology |