Medical Entomology

Collaborators

We are fortunate to collaborate on research and teaching efforts with colleagues in Iowa and beyond.

In a partnership with the Iowa Department of Public Health, Center for Acute Disease Epidemiology, and the University Hygienic Laboratory, we conduct surveillance for mosquitoes and ticks, and disease agents transmitted by these arthropods. 

Surveillance measures for mosquito and virus monitoring 

Information about mosquito and tick surveillance is regularly updated and can be viewed through links in the menu bar to the left.   We have published the following papers related to this work:
  • Sucaet, Y, Van Hemert, J, Tucker, BJ, Bartholomay, LC. 2008. A web-based relational database for monitoring and analyzing mosquito population dynamics. Journal of Medical Entomology 45(4): 775-784. [PMID: 18714883]
  • Oliver, J, Holscher, K, Hutcheson, HJ, Bartholomay, LC.  2007. Ticks and tick-borne diseases in Iowa.  Iowa State University Extension Publications [PM2036].

For more information on mosquito and tick ecology and biology in Iowa, please search PubMed for papers by Dr. Wayne A Rowley.

At the University of Northern Iowa, Dr. Ramanathan Sugumaran and the GEOTree lab have been invaluable in looking at our mosquito surveillance data with sophisticated Geographic Information Systems technology.  We have published data from these research efforts in the following publication:

  • DeGroote, JP, Sugumaran, R, Brend, SM, Tucker, BJ, Bartholomay, LC. 2008. Landscape, demographic, entomological, and climatic associations with human incidence of West Nile virus in the state of Iowa, USA.  International Journal of Heath Geographics 7: 19. [PMID: 18452604]

At the University of Iowa, we work with Dr. John Harty and trainees in his lab in the Department of Microbiology on a project that uses a mouse model for development of a malaria vaccine.

Images of malaria parasites in mosquitoes and mice

We have published data from these efforts in the following publication:

  • Schmidt, N, Podyminogin, R, Butler, N, Badovinac, V, Tucker, BJ, Bahjat, K, Lauer, P, Reyes-Sandoval, A, Hutchings, C, Moore, A, Gilbert, S, Bartholomay, LC, Harty, JT.  2008.  Memory CD8 T cell responses exceeding a large, but definable threshold provide long-term immunity to malaria.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105: 14017-22 [PMID: 18780790]

Also at the University of Iowa, we teach national and international students about zoonotic vector-borne diseases in the classroom and field with collaborators Dr. Greg Gray and the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases.  This course is part of the curriculum for a Certificate in Emerging Infectious Disease Epidemiology.

Teaching with colleagues at the CEID

In this image (left to right):  Brendan Dunphy (demonstrating use of a CDC light trap), Jon Oliver (checking a drag cloth for ticks) and teaching a student a dissection technique, and Lyric Bartholomay (demonstrating the dissection of a midgut from a mosquito).  Photo credits: Dr. Greg Gray.

Updated 12/17/2008 - 11:52am