Francisella tularensis is a highly infectious facultative intracellular bacterium that can be transmitted between mammals by arthropod vectors. Similar to many other intracellular bacteria that replicate within the cytosol, such as Listeria, Shigella, Burkholderia, and Rickettsia, the virulence of F. tularensis depends on its ability to modulate biogenesis of its phagosome and to escape into th...

Biological control is the deliberate use of natural enemies to reduce the number of pest organisms. It comprises methods that have gained acceptance for controlling nuisance arthropods partly due to the emergence of insecticide resistance and also because people have become more aware about the need to limit environmental pollution. In the case of arthropod-borne disease vectors, biological con...

Over the past few decades, the geographical distribution of arthropod-borne zoonoses has dramatically expanded. The influence of human-induced or ecological changes on the risk of disease outbreaks is undeniable. However, few hypotheses have been proposed which address the re-emergence of these diseases, the spread of these viruses to previously uninfected areas and their establishment therein....

The traditional view of interactions between arboviruses and their arthropod vectors is that vector hosts become increasingly resistant to parasites; parasite attenuation occurs; or through the process of coevolution, resistance and attenuation occur in concert. Detrimental effects from arboviruses are only seen when vector and virus are not yet well adapted. Results from this study indicate th...

Vector mosquitoes are responsible for transmission of the majority of arthropod-borne (arbo-) viruses. Virus replication in these vectors needs to be sufficiently high to permit efficient virus transfer to vertebrate hosts. The mosquito immune response therefore is a key determinant for arbovirus transmission. Mosquito antiviral immunity is primarily mediated by the small interfering RNA pathwa...

Definition of the disease: Trypanosoma evansi causes a disease known as Trypanosomosis1 (‘surra’). It affects a number of species of domesticated animals in Asia, Africa and Central and South America. The principal host species affected varies geographically, but buffalo, cattle, camels and horses are particularly affected, although other animals, including wildlife, are also susceptible. It is...

Germline transformation has been achieved in an increasing number of arthropods and numerous applications are envisioned. Many of these organisms are vectors of human and animal disease and are being transformed for the purpose of interfering with their capacity to transmit disease. In spite of the intended beneficial endpoint of this effort, descriptions of measures for the safe creation and t...

The concept of pathogenesis has evolved considerably over recent years, and the scenario "a microbe + virulence factors = disease" is probably far from reality in a number of cases. Actual pathogens have extremely broad biological diversity and are found in all major groups of microorganisms (viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa…). Their pathogenicity results from strong and often highly specific...

Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) represent an emerging threat to human and livestock health globally. In particular, those transmitted by mosquitoes present the greatest challenges to disease control efforts. An understanding of the molecular basis for mosquito innate immunity to arbovirus infection is therefore critical to investigations regarding arbovirus evolution, virus-vector ecology...

Mosquitoes represent the major arthropod vectors of human disease worldwide transmitting malaria, lymphatic filariasis, and arboviruses such as dengue virus and Zika virus. Unfortunately, no treatment (in the form of vaccines or drugs) is available for most of these diseases andvectorcontrolisstillthemainformofprevention. Thelimitationsoftraditionalinsecticide-based strategies, particularly the ...