My area of research includes the ecological dynamics of the transmission of zoonotic pathogens from animals to humans. Zoonotic pathogens are those agents which naturally infect animals, sometimes without any indication of pathologic change or disease in the host animal serving as the 'reservoir' species, but when transmitted to humans result in disease. I study viruses and bacteria which can be directly transmitted to humans, such as the bacterium causing the human disease leptospirosis, which is transmitted through contact with environments contaminated by leptospires shed in the urine of naturally infected hosts and those agents which require a vector species for transmission (e.g. the bacterium causing Lyme disease in humans which are acquired when an infected tick bites a human.
Specialized Terms: Hantaviruses; Arenaviruses; Rabies; Rickettsia; Bartonella; Borrelia; Leptospira
Bartonella; Borrelia; Hantavirus; Leptospira; Lyme Disease; Rabies; Rickettsia; Global Health; Zoonoses; Arenavirus
Zoonotic Diseases