Credit: UF/IFAS
Even though the Mayaro virus hasn’t infected anyone in Florida or the U.S., Barry Alto, an associate professor of entomology at the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, is studying whether mosquitoes common in Florida -- such as Aedes aegypti, or the yellow fever mosquito (seen above), can transmit the virus to humans.
In a new study, Alto and his research group found yellow fever and Asian tiger mosquitoes can carry the virus.