Black Plague Research Paper

Insects have been biting and sucking the blood of humans and animals throughout history. Plague swept through early civilizations, killing millions of people. The Black Death was a plague pandemic that swept through Asia and Europe, killing possibly as many as 25 million people. It wasn't until the late 1800s that researchers figured out what caused this horrible disease that kept reappearing throughout history. They discovered that rats were also getting sick from the plague, and that infected people had fleabites from rats. The flea was the disease vector and rats, along with other mammals, were the hosts.

A bacteriologist named Theobald Smith discovered that ticks and other arthropods can transmit diseases such as Texas cattle fever. His

On a typical day for this particular study, she collects some female mosquitoes from a special containment area. The mosquitoes are isolated because they have been fed a meal of malaria parasites. She compares their behavior with uninfected mosquitoes. One test is to put a sock on a cage and see how many mosquitoes bite it. Mosquitoes love human foot odor! Nina also tests brain signals, a very tedious task. This research is done in hopes that an odor can be used in mosquito traps that will be attractive to the ones carrying the deadly disease.

Later Dr. Stanczyk was involved in research that discovered that mosquitoes were actually attracted to malaria! But no exactly, according to the scientists. They were not interested in mice that showed malaria symptoms. But they were attracted to mice that were recovering from the disease. The researchers knew that this stage of malaria is when the parasite is at high levels. Somehow, the parasite was altering the mouse's odor, making the mosquitoes want to bite it. The researchers were able to extract the body scent from the mice. They tested the scent alone, and mosquitoes were attracted to