It’s hard to believe 2025 is already in the rearview mirror! It feels like just yesterday we were waving goodbye to 2024. Each January, I like to reflect on the previous year, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to take a look back on BugBitten’s 2025 and revisit some of my favorite blogs.

Last year represented a transition year for the blog series. In late 2024, we migrated from our old WordPress website to the new Research Communities platform. As with any transition, there were some bumps along the way as we acclimated to the new site, but this presented a good opportunity to share some of our older content on it.

For example, we reshared an old blog about an even older disease: the Black Death. Frequent contributor Tim Little wrote about recent research investigating the role lice might play in transmission of the disease. Another blog from our archive, by Karina Mondragon-Shem, took a general look at Oropouche fever.

But once we got our sea-legs for the new system, we continued with new content, too! Krisztian Magori wrote about the “Increased risk of infectious diseases in a time of war and conflict”, while Daniel Parsons drafted a blog entitled “Molecular compatibility of malaria parasites in mosquito vectors”, about the P47 protein that malaria parasites use to help survive in vectors, which makes it a promising target for transmission-blocking vaccines.

Anouk Gouvras explored “a growing body of behavioural and neural evidence showing that many orders of insects may meet the criteria for sentience” and the implications of that.

My colleague Srimathy Sriskantharajah wrote about chikungunya, after outbreaks were reported around the world.

Lastly, Freyja Austin examined the hidden economic burden zoonotic diseases can have on livestock and food security.

Also, this frigid winter weather on the east coast (with a winter storm on the way this weekend…) has me reminiscing about this past summer. Back in August, I had the opportunity to attend the 2025 World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology (WAAVP) conference. You can read about my experiences and reflections from the event here. And while there, the Odile Bain Memorial Prize for early career scientists was announced. The 2025 prize went to Guangxu Ma and Lucas Sousa-Paula, who both wrote guest blogs for BugBitten about the award and their achievements in parasitology.

Overall, it’s been a hectic past year, albeit one with lots of interesting research and blogs. Thank you to all of our readers! We’re looking forward to 2026, and we’ll have lots of blogs for you to read!

To close, here are a few recent papers that caught my eye:

Elevating larval source management as a key strategy for controlling malaria and other vector-borne diseases in Africa

Okumu et al. make the case for promoting larval source management (LSM) as a strategy for helping eliminate and control vector-borne diseases in Africa.

Entomological impact of three years of clothianidin-based indoor residual spraying in two high malaria endemic districts in Côte d’Ivoire

Chabi et al. look at the effect indoor residual spraying (IRS) had as a strategy to control malaria vectors over a three-year span.

Adherence to severe malaria treatment guidelines in Northern Uganda: a mixed-methods study

Adherence to severe malaria treatment guidelines is crucial for effective case management and reducing malaria-related morbidity and mortality. However, non-compliance among healthcare workers remains a challenge, particularly in resource-limited settings. For this study, Akello et al. look at the compliance rates in Uganda.

First evidence of the effectiveness of a field application of RNAi technology in reducing infestation of the mite Varroa destructor in the western honey bee (Apis mellifera)

The mite Varroa destructor is the most serious pest of the western honey bee (Apis mellifera) and a major factor in the global decline of colonies. This study looks at the feasibility and effectiveness of RNAi technology in reducing Varroa mite infestations under natural rearing conditions.

Cover image by Mohamed_hassan on Pixabay.