Two new Chagas papers: We examined infection of humans and their pet dogs at the same time in high risk communities along the TX-Mexico border (Trop Med), and we found high prevalence of infection working dogs suggesting multi-dog kennels are high risk environments (PLoS NTD).

New molecular description of a blood parasite associated with whooping cranes- perhaps a novel genus in Hemosporida?! (Mol Phylogenet Evol)

New conservation medicine publication in support of the surrogate species approach for disease studies of endangered species. Open access in Parasitology.  Congrats, miranda! Haemosporida prevalence and diversity are similar in endangered wild whooping cranes (Grus americana) and sympatric sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis).

Congrats to Alyssa Meyers for being selected for a $1000 CVM Grad Student Assocaition travel award in support of her recent trip to Atlanta for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting.  Alyssa presented her poster ‘Prevalence and risk factors of Trypanosoma cruzi infections in working dogs along the Texas-Mexico border’.

Carolyn Hodo and Italo Zecca were awarded $500 One Health Travel Awards!  Italo used his award to attend the American Public Health Association meeting in Denver, CO, where he presented his poster on Chagas disease surveillance in communities along the TX-Mexico border.  Carolyn will use her award to attend the AAVP meeting in New Orleans next month to give oral presentation on Chagas pathology in coyotes and poster presentation on a novel rodent poxvirus.

Justin Bejcek and Rachel Curtis-Robles were awarded $750 One Health Travel Awards!  Justin used his award to attend the International Congress of Entomology in Orlando, FL, where he presented his poster to help non-experts identify kissing bug vectors from many common look-alike, non-vector species.  Rachel used her award to attend the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Conference in Atlanta, GA, where she participated in the Young Investigator Competition with her work on spatio-temporal patterns of triatomines in the southern US.

Publication Celebration/Lab Retreat on Friday!  Gabe’s team vs. Sarah’s team in the Escape Rooms- one hour to make our way out.

Rachel successfully defended her dissertation in early August!

Recently accepted papers include Carolyn’s work on bat trypanosomes (Acta Tropica) and Rattus rattus and Trypanosoma cruziat a nonhuman primate faciltiy (Journal of the Am. Association of Lab Animal Science); our collaborative work with Dr. Light’s lab to study how invasive fire ants may alter tick-borne disease risk (Biology Letters); quantitative synthesis of ticks on birds across North America (Oecologia); and Lisa and Gabe’s work on stable isotopes to track mosquitoes in Tanzania (PLoS ONE).

Born on June 1 2016: Welcome to the newest lab member Johanna Jane Hamer!  Johanna enjoyed her first research trip in July to study human and dog populations in the colonias.