Vanessa Ezenwa, Ph.D.
Position
Assistant Professor, Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana
Ph.D
Princeton University, 2002
BA/BS
B.A. Rice University, 1997
Current Research
Field of Study: Wildlife Disease Ecology
My research centers on understanding the causes and consequences of variability in infectious disease and parasitism rates in wildlife populations. My work spans the fields of disease ecology, behavioral ecology, community ecology and conservation biology. Specifically, I am interested in four general topics: (1) the role of host behavior and ecology in shaping parasite infection risk within and across species, (2) the effects of host community ecology on parasite and disease transmission dynamics, (3) the evolution of behavioral counter-adaptations to parasites, and (4) the effects of anthropogenic driven environmental change on the dynamics of infectious diseases in wildlife.
Current research projects include:
- Behavior and ecology of African ungulates and interactions with gastrointestinal parasitism.
- Comparative studies of ecological and environmental predictors of infectious disease risk in mammals.
- Effects of avian community composition on West Nile virus dynamics.
Recent Publications
Ezenwa, V.O. 2004. Host social behavior and parasitic infection: a multifactorial approach. Behavioral Ecology, 15: 446-454.
Ezenwa, V.O. 2004. Interactions among host diet, nutritional status and gastrointestinal parasite infection in wild bovids. International Journal for Parasitology, 34: 535-542.
Ezenwa, V.O. 2004. Reserve characteristics predict parasite infection rates of impala (Aepyceros melampus) in fenced game reserves. Biological Conservation, 118: 397-401.
Altizer, S., Nunn, C.L., Thrall, P.H., Gittleman, J.L., Antonovics, J., Cunnningham, A.A., Dobson, A.P., Ezenwa, V., Jones, K.E., Pedersen, A.B., Poss, M., and J.R.C. Pulliam. 2003. Social organization and parasite risk in mammals: integrating theory and empirical studies. Annual Review of Ecology Evolution & Systematics, 34: 517-545.
Ezenwa, V.O. 2003. Habitat overlap and gastrointestinal parasitism in sympatric African bovids. Parasitology, 126: 379-388.
