For example, I have recently submitted a paper which provides an adaptive explanation for the phenomenon of 'invitation' pheromones. This was the subject of an oral presentation to the Oxford 2000 joint conference of the American and Royal Societies for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and the British Parasitological Society . In particular, I was interested in the influence of male sex pheromones on feeding and mating aggregation dynamics and the consequences for vector control. We studied the ecology and vector competence of Lutzomyia tejadai in a focus of mucocutaneous leishmaniasis. G. f. fuscipes is a riverine species, and human exposure is predominantly during washing, bathing and water collection at local streams and rivers.
Latest news is that political trouble has led to a temporary suspension in implementation.
Since the 1940s the population dynamics of the Great Tit, Parus major , has been studied at the University field site at Wytham Woods. For the past three years I have been studying the blood parasites of these birds in collaboration with Prof. Ali Anwar and the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology . We are interested in studying the epidemiology of these parasites, and understanding the fitness consequences of infection in this wild animal population. Work is continuing to develop molecular techniques to improve sensitivity and specificity over existing slide diagnoses. The blood-sucking arthropod fauna of Wytham appears to be exceptionally rich and has been the subject of a project funded by the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour and an MSc research projects undertaken by Roselle Champman and Jo Kettlewell.