In her second talk, Christofferson uses the Aedes aegypti-Zika system to explain how mosquito-life traits can be used to understand the process of vector competence. Zika is an arbovirus that is transmitted to humans via the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Christofferson measures how much time it takes for a mosquito to become infectious after its initial exposure (extrinsic incubation period) in order to understand how mosquito age interacts with the viral fitness measure of vector competence. This is done in the context of a commonly used mathematical framework, vectorial capacity.
View the full talk with additional resources on our website
Arbovirus Transmission: The Connection between the Vertebrate, the Virus, and the Vector
Rebecca Christofferson provides an overview of arboviruses, arthropod-borne viruses, like dengue and zika, and shares her work on characterizing understudied arboviruses like Bunyamwera, Batai, and Ngari. (Talk recorded in August 2019)
- Part 1: Mosquito-Borne Arboviruses: How Environmental Changes Affect Disease TransmissionAudience:
- Student
- Researcher
- Educators
- Educators of H. School / Intro Undergrad
- Educators of Adv. Undergrad / Grad
Duration: 00:23:12 - Part 2: Math and Mosquitoes: Modeling to Understand Viral Processes Driving EmergenceAudience:
- Student
- Researcher
- Educators
- Educators of H. School / Intro Undergrad
- Educators of Adv. Undergrad / Grad
Duration: 00:19:14 - Part 3: Characterizing Understudied Arboviruses: The Case of Orthobunyaviruses in RwandaAudience:
- Student
- Researcher
- Educators
- Educators of H. School / Intro Undergrad
- Educators of Adv. Undergrad / Grad
Duration: 00:23:50