History
The Center for Vector-borne Diseases was established at the University of California, Davis campus in 1996 as a joint venture between the School of Veterinary Medicine and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Core funding for the Center was provided through the transfer of the Arbovirus Research Unit, a world-renowned research program previously affiliated with the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. Since 1996, research at CVEC has focused on the biological interactions between vectors and infectious agents and between the vectors and hosts of pathogens and parasites. Today, in addition to viral diseases of humans, domestic animals, wildlife, and plants that are transmitted by mosquitoes, biting flies, and plant-feeding insects, the center also engages in research on rickettsial, bacterial, protozoan, and helminth disease pathogens carried by other insect vectors, ticks, crustaceans, mollusks, and rodents. Faculty associated with the center have expertise in vector-borne veterinary, human, and plant diseases, disease ecology and surveillance, disease in wildlife conservation, and in public health entomology.