About the Authors

Lela Urushadze

lelincdc@gmail.com

Affiliations National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, Tbilisi, Georgia, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia

Ying Bai

Affiliation Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Vector-Borne Disease, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America

Lynn Osikowicz

Affiliation Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Vector-Borne Disease, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America

Clifton McKee

Affiliations Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Vector-Borne Disease, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America, Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America

Ketevan Sidamonidze

Affiliation National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, Tbilisi, Georgia

Davit Putkaradze

Affiliation National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, Tbilisi, Georgia

Paata Imnadze

Affiliation National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, Tbilisi, Georgia

Andrei Kandaurov

Affiliation Institute of Zoology, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia

Ivan Kuzmin

Affiliation Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, United States of America

Michael Kosoy

Affiliation Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Vector-Borne Disease, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: LU YB PI MK. Performed the experiments: LU YB LO CM AK IK KS DP MK. Analyzed the data: LU YB LO CM AK IK PI MK. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LU IK KS PI MK. Wrote the paper: LU LO CM AK IK MK.