Disease Surveillance

UF veterinary parasitologist Jeff Gruntmeir shares expertise on babesiosis, an emerging disease spread by ticks.

The Girinka program in Rwanda has contributed to an increase in milk production, as well as to reduced malnutrition and increased incomes. But dairy products can be hazardous to health, potentially transmitting diseases such as bovine brucellosis, tuberculosis, and cause diarrhea.

The Emerging Pathogens Institute’s annual Research Day event celebrates pathogens research and the people who work in this critical academic space. After three years of meeting virtually, the event was held in person at the Reitz Union on Feb. 16, 2023 on the University of Florida’s campus. Researchers and students exhibited 123 abstracts and posters that probed pathogens and infectious diseases topics spanning from lab research to field investigations and bioinformatic analyses.

A growing body of information on vector-borne diseases has arisen as increasing research focus has been directed towards the need for anticipating risk, optimizing surveillance, and understanding the fundamental biology of vector-borne diseases to direct control and mitigation efforts. The scope and scale of this information, in the form of data, comprising database efforts, data storage, and serving approaches, means that it is distributed across many formats and data types.

Serological surveys are used to ascertain influenza infection and immunity, but evidence for the utility of mucosal immunoglobulin A (IgA) as a correlate of infection or protection is limited. By comparing individuals with and without influenza illness, we demonstrated that mucosal IgA is a correlate of influenza infection. There was evidence for cross-reactivity in mucosal IgA across influenza A subtypes.

New funding will help close gaps in infectious disease outbreak modeling.

UF mathematician Burton Singer contributed to a conceptual framework that can link physiological factors related to stress with negative health outcomes following natural disasters.

UF researchers report an uncommon instance of a past infection in an adult by a dog coronavirus strain that also contained genetic features of a cat coronavirus.

Compared with the U.S., why are some countries less affected by COVID-19? A UF researcher leads a team looking for answers in Africa. “If we can learn what can protect us as a species, we could potentially be better prepared for the next pandemic," said Rhoel Dinglasan, professor of infectious diseases.

UF researchers find first known instance of Yunnan orbivirus in North America from postmortem tests on tissues from a farmed white-tailed deer in Florida.