Modeling spatiotemporal dynamics of Amblyomma americanum questing activity in the central Great Plains.

Ticks represent important vectors of a number of bacterial and viral disease agents, owing to their hematophagous nature and their questing behavior (the process in which they seek new hosts). Questing activity is notably seasonal with spatiotemporal dynamics that needs to be understood in detail as part of mediating and mitigating tick-borne disease risk. Models of the geography of tick questing activity developed to date, however, have ignored the temporal dimensions of that behavior; more fundamentally, they have often not considered the sampling underlying available occurrence data.

Fluralaner (Bravecto) treatment kills Aedes aegypti after feeding on Dirofilaria immitis-infected dogs.

Background: Transmission of canine heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis) from infected to naïve dogs is dependent on successful mosquito feeding and survival.

Methods: To determine whether treating heartworm-infected dogs with fluralaner (Bravecto) limits the survival of infected mosquitoes, and potentially the transmission of D. immitis, we allowed female mosquitoes to feed on microfilaremic dogs and evaluated mosquito survival and infection with D.

Survey on the Presence of Equine Tick-Borne Rickettsial Infections in Southcentral United States.

Although ticks are known vectors of pathogens across a range of hosts, there is limited research on emerging tick-borne diseases of horses in the United States. Tick surveys from other regions suggest Rickettsia spp. and Ehrlichia spp.

Influence of tick sex and geographic region on the microbiome of Dermacentor variabilis collected from dogs and cats across the United States.

As tick-borne diseases continue to increase across North America, current research strives to understand how the tick microbiome may affect pathogen acquisition, maintenance, and transmission. Prior high throughput amplicon-based microbial diversity surveys of the widespread tick Dermacentor variabilis have suggested that life stage, sex, and geographic region may influence the composition of the tick microbiome. Here, adult D.

Identification of spp. and in spp. Collected from Dogs and Cats Across the United States.

In the United States, and are considered key vectors for , the causative agent of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Through regional surveillance, a wide diversity of spp. have been documented in , and spp.

Equine attachment site preferences and seasonality of common North American ticks: Amblyomma americanum, Dermacentor albipictus, and Ixodes scapularis.

Background: Ticks are common on horses, but recent publications characterizing equine tick infestations in North America are lacking.

Methods: To further understand attachment site preferences of common ticks of horses, and to document the seasonality of equine tick infestation in northeastern Oklahoma, horses from eight farms were evaluated twice a month over a 1-year period. Each horse was systematically inspected beginning at the head and moving caudally to the tail.

Transorbital craniectomy for treatment of frontal lobe and olfactory bulb neoplasms in two dogs.

Case Description: An 8-year-old spayed female Shih Tzu crossbreed dog (dog 1) and a 13-year-old neutered male Miniature Fox Terrier (dog 2) were evaluated for removal of neoplasms involving both the frontal lobe and olfactory bulb.

Clinical Findings: Physical examination revealed decreased menace response and behavioral changes in both dogs. For dog 1, neuroanatomic localization of the lesion was the left forebrain region; for dog 2, neuroanatomic localization of the lesion was the right forebrain region.

Dermacentor variabilis is the Predominant Dermacentor spp. (Acari: Ixodidae) Feeding on Dogs and Cats Throughout the United States.

Throughout North America, Dermacentor spp. ticks are often found feeding on animals and humans, and are known to transmit pathogens, including the Rocky Mountain spotted fever agent. To better define the identity and distribution of Dermacentor spp.

Recent reports of winter tick, Dermacentor albipictus, from dogs and cats in North America.

Dermacentor albipictus, a common one-host tick of large animals in North America, is most often reported from moose (Alces alces) and is rarely implicated as a parasite of cats and dogs. From 2018 to 2020, 4 dogs and 4 cats from United States and 3 dogs from Canada were infested with D. albipictus.

Correction to: Detection of gastrointestinal parasitism at recreational canine sites in the USA: the DOGPARCS study.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Detection of gastrointestinal parasitism at recreational canine sites in the USA: the DOGPARCS study.

Background: The rapid growth in off-leash dog parks provides opportunity for canine socialization activities but carries risk of exposure to intestinal parasites. This study assessed the prevalence of these infections in dogs visiting off-leash dog parks.

Methods: Fresh defecations were collected from dogs visiting parks in 30 metropolitan areas across the USA.

Haemaphysalis longicornis, the Asian longhorned tick, from a dog in Virginia, USA.

The Asian longhorned tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis, was only recently recognized in North America and has since been identified on a wide range of domestic and wild animal hosts in multiple states throughout the eastern United States. An H. longicornis nymph was submitted for identification from a dog in central Virginia, USA.

Prevalence of intestinal parasites in fecal samples and estimation of parasite contamination from dog parks in central Oklahoma.

Domestic dogs commonly harbor intestinal parasites in Oklahoma and throughout the world. We tested fecal samples from dog parks to determine the prevalence of intestinal parasites and reported use of parasite control in park-attending dogs and assess potential health risks posed by fecal contamination of public dog parks in this region. Fecal samples (n = 359) were collected from five public access dog parks in central Oklahoma from February to July 2019.

Show us your ticks: a survey of ticks infesting dogs and cats across the USA.

Background: A variety of tick species infest dogs and cats in North America. Although most of these species also readily feed on people, national data regarding the species and abundance of ticks on dogs and cats are lacking. Here we report a large-scale study of ticks from dogs and cats in the USA over a 12-month period.

Functional analysis of BARD1 missense variants in homology-directed repair and damage sensitivity.

The BARD1 protein, which heterodimerizes with BRCA1, is encoded by a known breast cancer susceptibility gene. While several BARD1 variants have been identified as pathogenic, many more missense variants exist that do not occur frequently enough to assign a clinical risk. In this paper, whole exome sequencing of over 10,000 cancer samples from 33 cancer types identified from somatic mutations and loss of heterozygosity in tumors 76 potentially cancer-associated BARD1 missense and truncation variants.