An LSU School of Veterinary medicine professor has received a $1.2 million grant to study the infamous Zika virus, as well as another mosquito-borne ailment known as the chikungunya virus, the school says in a news release.
Rebecca Christofferson, an assistant professor in pathobiological sciences with the LSU Vet School’s Vector-borne Disease Laboratory, received the grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The grant will last from Sept. 1, 2016 to Aug. 21, 2019.
Both the Zika and chikungunya viruses have recently emerged in the Western Hemisphere, though Zika, which has been linked to birth defects such as microcephaly, has grabbed more headlines lately. It has spread to more than 60 countries in South and Central America, the LSU Vet School says, and has slowly made its way into the United States.
Christofferson will investigate the effects of different temperatures on various mosquito life history traits, such as lifespan, and how easily mosquitoes can transmit the Zika and chikungunya viruses from one organism to another. The experiments will be used to develop mathematical models to help determine the subsequent effects of temperature variation on the mosquito population structure and, ultimately, arbovirus transmission.
There have been no reported cases of the Zika virus directly transmitted from mosquitoes in the state of Louisiana, LSU’s news release says. However, the state Department of Health has confirmed a number of cases in which Louisianans were diagnosed with Zika infections after traveling to other Zika-afflicted lands.
