About the Authors

Meer T. Alam

Affiliations Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America, Department of Environmental and Global Health, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Shrestha S. Ray

Affiliations Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America, Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Camille N. Chun

Affiliation Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Zahara G. Chowdhury

Affiliation Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Mohammed H. Rashid

Affiliation Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Valery E. Madsen Beau De Rochars

Affiliations Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America, Department of Health Services Research, Management, and Policy, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Afsar Ali

aali@epi.ufl.edu

Affiliations Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America, Department of Environmental and Global Health, College of Public Health and Health Professions, 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: MTA AA. Performed the experiments: MTA SSR CNC ZGC. Analyzed the data: MTA SSR AA. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MHR AA. Wrote the paper: AA VEMBDR.