Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes are the main vectors for dengue virus (DENV) and other arboviruses, including Zika virus (ZIKV).Understanding the factors that affect transmission of arboviruses from mosquitoes to humans is a priority, because it could inform public health and targeted interventions. Reasoning that interactions among viruses

Yellow fever (YF) is a re-emerging viral zoonosis caused by the Yellow Fever virus (YFV), affecting humans and non-human primates (NHP). YF is endemic in South America and Africa, being considered a burden for public health worldwide despite the availability of an effective vaccine. Acute infectious disease can progress to severe hemorrhagic conditions and has high rates of morbidity and mortality in endemic countries. In 2016, Brazil started experiencing one of the most significant YF epidemics in its history, with lots of deaths being reported in regions that were previously considered free of the disease. Here, we reviewed the historical aspects of YF in Brazil, the epidemiology of the disease, the challenges that remain in Brazil’s public health context, the main lessons learned from the recent outbreaks, and our perspective for facing future YF epidemics.

Studies on the parasitology of ectoparasitic bat flies are scarce, and they are needed to identify patterns in parasitism. Hence, in the present study, we assessed community composition, prevalence, average infestation intensity, and specificity in the fly-bat associations in Brazilian tropical dry forests. In order to do that, we used the parasitological indices known as prevalence and average infestation intensity, along with an index of host specificity. We collected 1098 bat flies of 38 species. Five of the associations found are new to Brazil, 9 are new to southeastern Brazil, and 10 are new to science. Average infestation intensity varied from 1 to 9 and prevalence 0 to 100 %. In terms of specificity, 76 % of the bat flies were associated to a single host (monoxenic). These results highlight the low capacity of bat flies to survive on a not usual host especially due to an immunological incompatibility between parasites and hosts and dispersal barriers.

Habitat modification may change vertebrate and vector-borne disease distributions. However, natural forest regeneration through secondary succession may mitigate these effects. Here we tested the hypothesis that secondary succession influences the distribution of birds and their haemosporidian parasites (genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) in a seasonally dry tropical forest, a globally threatened ecosystem, in Brazil. Moreover, we assessed seasonal fluctuations in parasite prevalence and distribution. We sampled birds in four different successional stages at the peak and end of the rainy season, as well as in the middle and at the end of the dry season. A non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis revealed that bird communities in the pasture (i.e., highly modified) areas were different from those in the early, intermediate, and late successional areas (secondary forests). Among 461 individual birds, haemosporidian prevalence was higher in pasture areas than in the more advanced successional stages, but parasite communities were homogeneous across these areas. Parasite prevalence was higher in pasture-specialists birds (resilient species) than in forest-specialists species, suggesting that pasture-specialists may increase infection risk for co-occurring hosts. We found an increase in prevalence between the middle and end of the dry season, a period associated with the beginning of the breeding season (early spring) in southeastern Brazil. We also found effects of seasonality in the relative prevalence of specific parasite lineages. Our results show that natural forest recovery through secondary succession in SDTFs is associated with compositional differences in avian communities, and that advanced successional stages are associated with lower prevalence of avian haemosporidian parasites.

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