Publications

oviposition strategies of florida culex (melanoconion) mosquitoes.	in the genus culex, oviposition is often generalized as laying floating egg rafts directly on the surface of the water, as reported for arbovirus vectors culex pipiens l. and culex tarsalis coquillett, both members of subgenus culex. the current work reports on investigations of exceptions to this strategy by species of melanoconion, a diverse and mostly tropical subgenus of culex, with many arbovirus vectors. wild gravid females from vero beach, fl, were introduced into outdoor cages with open ...	2017	28402498
mammal decline, linked to invasive burmese python, shifts host use of vector mosquito towards reservoir hosts of a zoonotic disease.	invasive apex predators have profound impacts on natural communities, yet the consequences of these impacts on the transmission of zoonotic pathogens are unexplored. collapse of large- and medium-sized mammal populations in the florida everglades has been linked to the invasive burmese python, python bivittatus kuhl. we used historic and current data to investigate potential impacts of these community effects on contact between the reservoir hosts (certain rodents) and vectors of everglades viru ...	2017	28978755
predicting the mosquito species and vertebrate species involved in the theoretical transmission of rift valley fever virus in the united states.	rift valley fever virus (rvfv) is a mosquito-borne virus in the family bunyaviridiae that has spread throughout continental africa to madagascar and the arabian peninsula. the establishment of rvfv in north america would have serious consequences for human and animal health in addition to a significant economic impact on the livestock industry. published and unpublished data on rvfv vector competence, vertebrate host competence, and mosquito feeding patterns from the united states were combined ...	2014	25211133
serologic evidence of widespread everglades virus activity in dogs, florida.	everglades virus (evev), an alphavirus in the venezuelan equine encephalitis complex, circulates among rodents and vector mosquitoes in florida and occasionally infects humans. it causes febrile disease, sometimes accompanied by neurologic manifestations. although previous surveys showed high seroprevalence in humans, evev infections may be underdiagnosed because the disease is not severe enough to warrant a clinic visit or the undifferentiated presentations complicate diagnosis. documented evev ...	2006	17326938
evolutionary relationships and systematics of the alphaviruses.	partial e1 envelope glycoprotein gene sequences and complete structural polyprotein sequences were used to compare divergence and construct phylogenetic trees for the genus alphavirus. tree topologies indicated that the mosquito-borne alphaviruses could have arisen in either the old or the new world, with at least two transoceanic introductions to account for their current distribution. the time frame for alphavirus diversification could not be estimated because maximum-likelihood analyses indic ...	2001	11581380