Vanessa Ezenwa ( edit )

Assistant Professor

Contact Vanessa Ezenwa

Phone: 406-243-5668

E-mail Address: vanessa.ezenwa@umontana.edu

Office : Health Sciences 304a

Education

B.A. Rice University, 1997
Ph.D. Princeton University, 2002

Research Interests

My research centers on understanding the causes and consequences of variation in infectious disease and parasitism rates in wild animal populations. My work spans the fields of disease ecology, behavioral ecology, community ecology and conservation biology. Specifically, my work centers on four general areas: (1) effects of host behavior, ecology and physiology on infectious disease risk, (2) the evolution of host behavior in response to parasites, (3) within-host parasite interactions and parasite community ecology, (4) parasite and disease transmission in multi-host communities. Current projects in my lab focus on ungulate systems in Montana and subsaharan Africa.

Publications

Ezenwa, V. O. and A. E. Jolles. 2008. Horns honestly advertise parasite infection in male and female African buffalo, Animal Behaviour, 75:2013-2021.

Jolles, A. E., Ezenwa, V. O., Etienne, R., Turner, W. and H. Olff. 2008. Interactions between macroparasites and microparasites drive patterns of infection in free-ranging African buffalo. Ecology, 89:2239-2250.

Luikart, G., Pilgrim, K., Visty, J., Ezenwa, V. O., and M. K. Schwartz. 2008. Candidate gene microsatellite variation is associated with parasitism in wild bighorn sheep. Biology Letters, 4: 228-231.

Hoberg, E. P., Abrams, A. and V. O. Ezenwa. 2008. An exploration of diversity among the Ostertagiinae (Nematoda: Trichostrongyloidea) in ungulates from sub-saharan Africa with a proposal for a new genus. Journal of Parasitology, 94: 230-251

Ezenwa, V.O., Milheim, L.E., Coffey, M.F., Godsey, M.S., King, R.J. and S.C. Guptill. 2007. Land cover variation and West Nile virus prevalence: patterns, processes and implications for disease control. Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, 7: 173-180.

Ezenwa, V. O., Price S. A., Altizer, S., Vitone, N. D. and K. C. Cook. 2006. Host traits and parasite species richness in even and odd-toed mammals (Artiodactyla and Perissodactyla). Oikos, 115: 526-536.

Ezenwa, V.O., Godsey, M.S., King, R.J. and S.C. Guptill. 2006. Avian diversity and West Nile virus: testing associations between biodiversity and infectious disease risk. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, 273: 109-117.

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. Host social behavior and parasitic infection: a multifactorial approach. Behavioral Ecology, 15: 446-454.

Ezenwa, V.O. 2004. Reserve characteristics predict parasite infection rates of impala (Aepyceros melampus) in fenced game reserves. Biological Conservation, 118: 397-401.

Ezenwa, V.O. 2004. Selective defecation and selective foraging: antiparasite behavior in wild ungulates? Ethology, 110: 851-862.

Ezenwa, V.O. 2003. Habitat overlap and gastrointestinal parasitism in sympatric African bovids. Parasitology, 126: 379-388.

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.

Field of Study

Disease Ecology, Behavioral Ecology

Courses Taught

Ecology of Infectious Diseases (BIOL 495)
Ecology (BIOL 340)