Mosquitoes have been transmitting the West Nile virus to humans in the United States for over 25 years, but we still don’t know precisely how the virus cycles through these pests and the other animals they bite. A federally funded project aims to help pin down the process by using mathematical models to analyze how factors like temperature, light pollution, and bird and mosquito abundance affect West Nile virus transmission. The ultimate goal is to advise health departments of the best time of year to kill the bugs.

Daniele Piscitelli, assistant professor of kinesiology in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR), published these findings in Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience.

Piscitelli had been collaborating with colleagues in Brazil to study changes in the cortical activity and neuroplasticity in the brains of individuals with stroke. In the course of their work, they found that other researchers had been using the same kinds of measurements to study migraines.