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Anaplasma marginale in buffaloes: prevalence and control
Anaplasma marginale in buffaloes infected 16 percent of 250 Nili-Ravi buffaloes screened in Punjab, making it the most common of three tick-borne pathogens tested. Theileriosis and Anaplasma ovis followed at 12 percent and 4.4 percent. None of the usual risk factors predicted infection, and one animal carried all three parasites at once. Why tick-borne pathogens threaten buffalo herds Nili-Ravi buffaloes supply a large share of the milk produced in Punjab and form the economic backbone of many small farms. Their value makes any drop in productivity expensive. Tick-borne infections cut milk yield, slow weight gain, and cause anemia and fever that can spiral into reproductive losses. Three parasites dominate the…
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Viruses Don’t Always Adapt Before Spilling Over: New Study Rewrites How Pandemics Begin
The standard story about animal viruses jumping to humans usually goes something like this. A virus hangs out in bats or pigs, picks up mutations over time, and eventually becomes human-ready. Then it spills over, and we get a pandemic. Nice story. But the genomic data doesnt always cooperate. A 2026 study from UC San Diego, Temple University, and a few other labs dug into the evolutionary fingerprints of the most consequential viruses from the last twenty years. They came back with findings that upend a lot of the conventional wisdom. The Two Models So heres the core question: do animal viruses actually need to adapt to humans before triggering…
