© 2022 Health News Florida



Health News Florida Partners
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

How the Python's Voracious Appetite Could Spread Everglades Virus

WGCU | By Julie Glenn,
Rachel Iacovone
Published October 10, 2017 at 12:55 PM EDT
A mosquito
Pixabay
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

The Everglades' python problem is not news to most Southwest Floridians, but what may be is the effects the overabundance of the invasive species may soon have on humans well outside of the Everglades.

Pythons have decimated the Everglades fauna to the point where mosquitoes are only getting blood from rats, and that’s spreading a unique disease that could soon become a problem for people.

Dr. Nathan Burkett-Cadena of University of Florida's Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory joins Gulf Coast Live to talk about pythons’ contribution to spreading the Everglades virus.

Copyright 2020 WGCU. To see more, visit WGCU.

Tags
Health News Florida everglades viruspythonEverglades
Julie Glenn
Julie Glenn is the host of Gulf Coast Live. She has been working in southwest Florida as a freelance writer since 2007, most recently as a regular columnist for the Naples Daily News. She began her broadcasting career in 1993 as a reporter/anchor/producer for a local CBS affiliate in Quincy, Illinois. After also working for the NBC affiliate, she decided to move to Parma, Italy where she earned her Master’s degree in communication from the University of Gastronomic Sciences. Her undergraduate degree in Mass Communication is from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
See stories by Julie Glenn
Rachel Iacovone
RachelIacovoneis a reporter and associate producer of Gulf Coast LiveforWGCU News. Rachel came toWGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.
See stories by Rachel Iacovone
Related Content