About the Authors

Timothy Andrew Joyner

Affiliation Emerging Pathogens Institute and the Department of Geography, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Larissa Lukhnova

Affiliation Kazakh Science Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Diseases, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Yerlan Pazilov

Affiliation Kazakh Science Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Diseases, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Gulnara Temiralyeva

Affiliation Kazakh Science Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Diseases, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Martin E. Hugh-Jones

Affiliation Department of Environmental Science, School of the Coast and Environment, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States of America

Alim Aikimbayev

Current address: Republican Sanitary and Epidemiological Station, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Affiliation Kazakh Science Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Diseases, Almaty, Kazakhstan

Jason K. Blackburn

jkblackburn@ufl.edu

Affiliation Emerging Pathogens Institute and the Department of Geography, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: TAJ JKB. Performed the experiments: TAJ JKB. Analyzed the data: TAJ LL YP GT MHJ AA JKB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: TAJ LL YP GT AA JKB. Wrote the paper: TAJ LL YP GT MHJ AA JKB.