GLOBAL News - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Read GLOBE’s Latest Guest Scientist Blog: “GO Oklahoma! Citizen Science Campaign”
A recent GLOBE Guest Scientist Blog, submitted by Dr. Caio França, Southern Nazarene University (Bethany, Oklahoma, USA), entitled “GO Oklahoma! Citizen Science Campaign,” discusses research focused on surveillance of mosquito-borne arboviruses. “I’m interested in discovering evolutionary elements that could provide key information about epidemiology, geographic range, and spread of West Nile Virus strains,” Dr. França said.
“Oklahoma is an ecologically diverse state in the Southern Plains region of the United States. It is part of the central flyway for migratory birds, which makes it a sentinel location for West Nile Virus (WNV) surveillance,“ Dr. França said in the blog.
“Why birds? Birds play a role in the WNV transmission cycle. Mosquitoes become infected with WNV when they bite an infected bird. Birds can develop high levels of the virus in their bloodstream. Because WNV is usually non-lethal in birds, birds serve as reservoir hosts. In disease ecology, there are organisms that serve as natural reservoirs for the pathogen. Reservoir hosts refer to organisms where the infectious pathogen naturally lives and reproduces. Mosquitoes acquire WNV through a blood meal from a bird and can then transmit the pathogen to humans.”
Want to read more about this critical research? Then click here. (GO Oklahoma! is a collaboration between Dr. Mike Wimberly, University of Oklahoma; Dr. Caio França, Southern Nazarene University; Dr. Russanne Low and Cassie Soeffing, The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies; and the NASA GLOBE Observer Mission Mosquito campaign. For more information on GO Oklahoma or to volunteer for the campaign, contact Dr. França at cfranca@mail.snu.edu.)
To read other recent STEM Professional blogs, click here.
type: globe-newsNews origin: GLOBE Implementation Office