Stress bites! USF researchers study mosquito/bird interactions

(University of South Florida (USF Innovation)) When researchers from USF and colleagues investigated how the stress hormone, corticosterone, affects how birds cope with West Nile virus, they found that birds with higher levels of stress hormone were twice as likely to be bitten by mosquitoes that transmit the virus. Their studies have implications for the transmission of other viruses such Eastern Equine Encephalitis, and perhaps even Zika, both known to be carried by the kind of mosquitoes used...