Small predator diversity is an important part of a healthy ecosystem
Biodiversity, including small predators such as dragonflies and other aquatic bugs that attack and consume parasites, may improve the health of amphibians, according to a team of researchers....
View ArticleMicro-5: Gut reactions in space
Our guts literally teem with beneficial bacteria. But not all bacteria are harmless. Disease-causing bacteria, known as pathogens, can infect our intestines, causing illness or even death. Bacterial...
View ArticleLooking for alternatives to antibiotics
Bacteria that talk to one another and organize themselves into biofilms are more resistant to antibiotics. Researchers are now working to develop drugs that prevent bacteria from communicating.
View ArticleSupplemental feeding for endangered avian species
New research from conservationists at the University of Kent has revealed that supplemental feeding can help the recovery of endangered avian populations despite exacerbating the effects of infectious...
View ArticleStudy demonstrates important links between human health and the environment...
The relationship between human disease and environmental management has been the subject of extensive research, especially given the recent outbreaks of Ebola, SARS and other zoonotic infectious...
View ArticleDisease poses risk to chimpanzee conservation, study finds
Infectious disease should be a key consideration in wildlife conservation, suggests a study focused on primates in Tanzania's Gombe Stream National Park, published by PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases....
View ArticleSupplemental feeding of wildlife can affect their risk of disease
Supplemental feeding of wildlife can increase the spread of some infectious diseases and decrease the spread of others. A new study by University of Georgia ecologists finds that the outcome depends on...
View ArticleNew class of insecticides offers safer, more targeted mosquito control
Purdue researchers have identified a new class of chemical insecticides that could provide a safer, more selective means of controlling mosquitoes that transmit key infectious diseases such as dengue,...
View ArticleWild voles' fight against infection could help explain varied immunity
The different ways that animals and humans respond to infectious disease could be explained by analysis of the biology and environment of the genetically diverse, wild vole, say researchers at the...
View ArticleEvolutionary history is a predictor of diversity of parasites in a species
The evolutionary history, body size and geographic range of an animal species are predictors for the diversity of parasites—or disease—that species carries, according to University of Georgia researchers.
View ArticleBook details misconceptions about smallpox's role in Native depopulation
When University of Kansas researcher Paul Kelton came across a description from missionary Daniel Butrick that documented a Cherokee ritual aimed at fighting smallpox, it revolutionized Kelton's...
View ArticleBovine TB infection depends on feedback between cattle and badgers
Bovine tuberculosis (BTB) is an infectious disease affecting cattle and badgers. New research from the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge has found that BTB is most likely to be nearly under control...
View ArticleGrass plants can transport infectious prions
Grass plants can bind, uptake and transport infectious prions, according to researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The research was published online in the...
View ArticleForecasting future infectious disease outbreaks
Machine learning can pinpoint rodent species that harbor diseases andgeographic hotspots vulnerable to new parasites and pathogens. So reportsa new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of...
View ArticleBiomedical sensors for disease detection made simple
Healthcare researchers are increasingly focused on the early detection and prevention of illnesses. Early and accurate diagnosis is vital, especially for people in developing countries where infectious...
View ArticleNew chip makes testing for antibiotic-resistant bacteria faster, easier
We live in fear of 'superbugs': infectious bacteria that don't respond to treatment by antibiotics, and can turn a routine hospital stay into a nightmare. A 2015 Health Canada report estimates that...
View ArticleDiscovery of how bacteria survive antibiotics may improve treatment of...
Infectious diseases kill more people worldwide than any other single cause, but treatment often fails because a small fraction of bacterial cells can transiently survive antibiotics and recolonize the...
View ArticleResearch team produces powerful new tool for medical diagnostic applications
Professor Georg Duesberg, Investigator in AMBER, the Science Foundation Ireland funded materials science centre based at Trinity College Dublin, and Trinity's School of Chemistry and his team, in...
View ArticleMathematical models with complicated dynamics for disease study
A paper to be published this week in the SIAM Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems presents a mathematical model to study the effects of individual movement on infectious disease spread.
View ArticleBiodiversity reduces human, wildlife diseases and crop pests
With infectious diseases increasing worldwide, the need to understand how and why disease outbreaks occur is becoming increasingly important. Looking for answers, a team of University of South Florida...
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