About

The webpage for Luis E. Escobar indicates that he is associated with the Laboratory of Disease Ecology & Biogeography. The site mentions that the lab has been updated and provides a link to a new lab website. However, the provided text does not include specific details about his research focus, background, or key contributions. Therefore, no detailed professional biography can be extracted from the available content.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Political Science
• Engineering
• Computer Science
• Ecology
• Biology
• Geography
• Virology
• Economics
• Waste management
• Oceanography
• Pathology
• Business
• Environmental planning
• Environmental science
• Geology
• Environmental resource management
• Environmental health
• Aerospace engineering

Selected publications

• Household factors influencing cockroach infestations and helminth parasites: Insights from a rural community in Guatemala

  PLoS ONE · 2026-01-09

  articleOpen access

  Cockroaches are vectors of pathogens and parasites that pose public health risks, especially in developing countries with poor hygiene and inadequate infrastructure. This study aimed to identify the household factors associated with the occurrence of cockroaches and the helminth parasites they carry in a rural community. Data on household infrastructure, presence of domestic animals, and insect control methods were collected from 70 households in rural Guatemala. Cockroaches were captured using traps and manually. A Generalized Linear Mixed Model revealed that households with concrete roofs had 94% lower abundance of cockroaches than those with metal sheet roofs, while the presence of cats increased cockroach abundance by 2.6 times (p < 0.05). Six genera of helminths, including the acanthocephalan zoonotic parasite Moniliformis moniliformis, were identified, marking the first report of such parasites in household cockroaches in Guatemala. These results highlight the need for improved housing infrastructure and integrated pest management strategies to mitigate the risks associated with cockroach-borne parasites in vulnerable communities.

  PublisherDOI

• Assessing sexual dimorphism in the common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus

  PLoS ONE · 2026-01-21

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Sexual dimorphism in bats is understudied, with conflicting evidence across species and geographic regions. For Desmodus rotundus, the common vampire bat, previous reports on morphological sex differences have been inconsistent. This study aimed to assess sexual dimorphism in D. rotundus using a combination of contemporary field measurements and historical museum specimens. We analyzed six morphometric traits, including body mass, head length, body length, tibia length, ear length, and forearm length. Data were collected from 46 wild-captured individuals from five locations across Colombia in South America. Additionally, forearm length was examined in an expanded dataset of 490 specimens, including additional 444 individuals from museum vouchers collected over the past century. Principal components analysis and hierarchical clustering of the six-trait dataset showed patterns of differentiation between sexes, with partial overlap. Forearm length, analyzed independently in the full 490-specimen dataset, showed strong evidence of sexual dimorphism. Females had significantly longer forearms (mean = 61.8 mm) than males (mean = 58.5 mm), with non-overlapping 95% confidence intervals and a highly significant t-test result (t = -12.68, p < 2 × 10 ⁻ ¹⁶). Sex explained 25.7% of the variation in forearm length (R² = 0.26). Tibia length also differed significantly between sexes of the wild-catch individuals (p = 0.004), with females exhibiting greater values. Comparisons between museum specimens (historical) and wild-caught specimens (contemporary) showed no significant differences across time in either sex. Among females, the difference was not significant (t = -0.93, df = 208, p = 0.355), and the same was true for males (t = -0.01, df = 278, p = 0.992). A follow-up MANOVA on the six morphometric traits indicated a significant effect of sex (Pillai's trace = 0.389, approx. F(6,39)=4.14, p < 2.2 × 10 ⁻ ¹⁶). After correcting for multiple comparisons, significant sexual dimorphism remained for forearm and tibia lengths, with forearm showing the strongest signal. These findings provide robust support for modest but consistent female-biased dimorphism in D. rotundus. The use of both multivariate and univariate analysis, combined with long-term historical data, enhanced the reliability of signals detected regarding morphological differences. Desmodus rotundus play a role as a primary reservoir for zoonotic viruses, has potential relevance in biomedical research, and provides ecosystem services. Understanding sex-based morphological variation is critical to inform public health, ecology, and biological conservation strategies. Females were consistently larger than males, but segregation was not absolute, with some individuals falling outside the expected data range for their sex. This study contributes to a clearer understanding of morphological variation and lays the groundwork for future research into the ecological and evolutionary drivers of dimorphism in bats.

  PublisherDOI

• Drivers of rabies virus spillover risk from vampire bats to livestock in Colombia

  PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025-09-26 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: Rabies is an acute and progressive viral zoonotic disease of the nervous system, which widely affects domestic animals in Latin America. Vampire bat-borne rabies virus (RABV) has significant negative impacts on the livestock industry via animal mortality. Nevertheless, the landscape level factors that facilitate or limit RABV transmission from vampire bats to livestock remain elusive. METHODS: To determine how abiotic and biotic factors modulate RABV spillover from vampire bats to livestock, we assessed the role of different landscape variables on the occurrence of RABV spillover from Desmodus rotundus to livestock in Colombia. Using ecological niche modeling as the theoretical and analytical framework, we analyzed ecological and epidemiological RABV data to reconstruct spillover transmission events. RESULTS: Anthropogenic variables including livestock and human density were consistently selected as predictors of RABV spillover from vampire bats to livestock. Cattle density had the highest average relative contribution to final ecological niche models (64.7%). We also found improvement of RABV spillover risk estimates when sampling bias in the form of cattle density was used in the modeling process. High risk for RABV spillover (0.75-0.98) was consistently predicted in the Caribbean region of Colombia. Nevertheless, more widespread moderate RABV spillover risk was predicted more broadly across the country when sampling bias was accounted for. CONCLUSION: Our modelling effort revealed that variable selection and use of bias surface have tractable impacts on final projections of spillover risk. Our results also indicate that human activity drives RABV spillover risk to a greater extent than ecological or climatological factors. Results from this study provide important information about landscape conditions linked to RABV transmission risk, where livestock vaccination should be prioritized.

  PublisherDOI

• A practical framework for a theory-driven ecological niche modeling workflow

  The Innovation Life · 2025-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  &lt;p&gt;Distributional ecology provides a multidimensional understanding of the complex ecological, evolutionary, and biogeographic factors shaping species’ distributions. Distributional ecology uses ecological niche modeling (ENM) serving as a quantitative approach to estimate species’ ecological niches and their manifestation as likely geographic ranges. Its application is particularly crucial for invasive species, where predicting their potential spread is paramount. An important ongoing debate is how to choose a suitable algorithm and its parameters to perform models well. Nevertheless, a main question should be what ecological niche is being reconstructed, the realized or fundamental? Current protocols and emergent evaluation metrics have only focused on reconstructions of the realized niche, driven by the unbalanced credibility between present and pseudo-absence (or background) occurrences, which often prioritize fitting to the available data while overlooking species’ physiological and ecological constraints. Our findings indicate that generalized linear models (GLMs) effectively reconstruct most of the fundamental niche, whereas hypervolume methods, such as kernel density estimation (KDE) and Marble Algorithm (MA), tend to overfit the data and perform poorly. Similarly, Maxent exhibits limitations in characterizing the fundamental niche. We present a conceptual framework to guide assumptions and workflows in ENM applications to facilitate model selection and interpretation.&lt;/p&gt;

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Biodiversity Informatics

  VTechWorks (Virginia Tech) · 2025-05-01

  article

  Despite the large body of literature on avian migratory behavior, there is little information about stopover sites during bird movement, including the population-level drivers of breeding grounds and wintering grounds. Stopovers play an essential role in bird migratory site chains for energy supply and rest. There is an urgent need to identify and protect stopover sites to secure the long-term sustainability of migratory network connectivity and stability. To address this challenge, we reconstructed a migration network and identified geographic hotspots denoted as stopover sites. And we analyzed the high-density population movements of 52 focal migratory bird species using comprehensive observation data from eBird through PageRank algorithm. Furthermore, potential alternative stopover sites were explored using a word embedding technique based on geo-functional similarity. Our study was conducted in North and Central America during a three-year period and revealed three key stopover areas, including Florida peninsula and its inland, the region of Central America, and the region near Puget Sound. Results from this study can be used for conservation prioritization guidance, active surveillance of bird pathogens, and bird management.

  Publisher

• Descripción de un nuevo humedal cauce aislado de río en Colombia

  Revista Chapingo Serie Agricultura Tropical · 2025-06-18

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Los humedales tipo cauce aislado de río representan ecosistemas importantes para la biodiversidad y los servicios ambientales, pero su conservación es amenazada por diversas actividades productivas. El estudio tiene como objetivo principal evaluar el impacto de estas actividades sobre un nuevo humedal en Colombia, con el propósito de promover su conservación y uso sostenible. Además, busca reforzar los propósitos de la educación ambiental en la comprensión de la pérdida de biodiversidad en estos ecosistemas y en la aplicación de prácticas sostenibles. El enfoque metodológico se basa en la teoría general de sistemas, abordando la problemática desde las ciencias ambientales. A través de la recolección de datos, la observación directa del ecosistema y el análisis de la gestión sostenible que han venido realizando las autoridades ambientales, se emplean indicadores específicos adaptados al contexto del humedal para evaluar sus condiciones ecológicas y grado de deterioro. Los resultados evidencian una pertinente revisión sistemática del tema, el inventario de las especies, la identificación de las actividades productivas que han generado cambios en la dinámica ecológica del humedal, afectando su biodiversidad y capacidad de autorregulación. Sin embargo, se identifican oportunidades para implementar estrategias de restauración y manejo sostenible, respaldadas por políticas públicas adecuadas. En conclusión, la investigación resalta la necesidad de fortalecer la educación ambiental y las estrategias de conservación en estos ecosistemas, promoviendo acciones que equilibren el desarrollo productivo con la protección de la biodiversidad y la sostenibilidad del humedal.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Rabies transmitted from vampires to cattle: An overview

  PLoS ONE · 2025-01-13 · 14 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Rabies is a zoonotic infectious disease of global distribution that impacts human and animal health. In rural Latin America, rabies negatively impacts food security and the economy due to losses in livestock production. The common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus, is the main reservoir and transmitter of rabies virus (RABV) to domestic animals in Latin America. Desmodus rotundus RABV is known to impact the cattle industry, from small farmers to large corporations. We assessed the main patterns of rabies in cattle attributed to D. rotundus RABV across Latin America. Epidemiological data on rabies from Latin America were collected from the Pan American Health Organization spanning the 1970-2023 period. Analyses revealed an average of 450 outbreaks annually for the countries where D. rotundus is distributed, with at least 6 animals dying in each outbreak. Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Mexico were the Latin American countries with the highest number of rabies outbreaks during the study period and are the most affected countries in recent years. Findings suggest a re-emergence of bat-borne rabies in the region with more outbreaks reported in recent years, especially during the 2003-2020 period. Rabies outbreaks in cattle in the 2000-2020 period were significantly more frequent than in previous decades, with an increase in cross-species transmission after 2002. The size of outbreaks, however, was smaller in recent years, involving lower cattle mortality. Peru, El Salvador, and Brazil showed a strong association (R = 0.73, p = 0.01) between rabies incidence in D. rotundus (rates per million humans: 1.61, 0.94, and 1.09, respectively) and rabies outbreaks in cattle (rates per million cattle: 465.85, 351.01, and 48.22, respectively). A sustained, standardized, and widespread monitoring of D. rotundus demography and health could serve to inform an early warning system for the early detection of RABV and other bat-borne pathogens in Latin America. Current data can be used to forecast when, where, and in which intensity RABV outbreaks are more likely to occur in subtropical and tropical Latin America. A decrease in the size of outbreaks could suggest that strategies for epidemic management (e.g., education, early diagnosis, vaccination) have been effective. The increase in the number of outbreaks could suggest that the factors facilitating cross-species transmission could be on the rise.

  PublisherDOI

• Rodents of Chile: a brief appraisal of their conservation status and ecological significance

  ZooKeys · 2025-10-01 · 2 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior author

  Rodentia is the most widely distributed, diverse, and numerous order of the class Mammalia. Nevertheless, rodents are poorly studied in terms of their conservation compared to other mammalian orders. Chile has one of the highest rates of extinction risk in the world for mammals (20%), where rodents have the highest risk (32%). The data of threatened rodent species is not comprehensive, as many species are still classified as data deficient. This lack of information could mean that the actual number of threatened species is higher than currently recognized. Using different databases, the biogeography, conservation status, ecological roles of rodent species in Chile are updated and described, and their potential zoonotic implication discussed. Results revealed that rodent species richness is highest in the northern and central-southern regions of Chile, where fewer protected areas exist, suggesting an inefficient role of public protected areas for the conservation of rodents and potentially other taxa. The conservation classification by the Chilean government did not match the conservation status from international classifications, revealing poor information for several species at national level. Functional traits of the species studied suggest that rodents are good predictors of ecosystem health due to their rapid life cycles and wide distribution, although distribution was predictive for only some species. Our results indicated that better information on the distribution and rodent species richness provide opportunities to understand complex rodent-borne diseases such as hantavirus. This study validates the use of rodents as indicators to assess ecosystem health and design effective biodiversity conservation plans.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Niche-Center Relationship in Ecological Niche Modeling

  2025-12-11

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The niche-center relationship posits that organisms’ fitness is highest at the center of their fundamental ecological niche, an assumption often implicit in ecological niche modeling. Nevertheless, empirical support for the niche-center relationship at the species level is often inconsistent, potentially due to confounding factors such as biotic interactions, dispersal limitations, habitat degradation, and sampling biases. Confounding factors could obscure the signals of the niche-center relationship between abiotic conditions and population performance. To address these challenges, we present a supra-specific approach, hypothesizing that analyzing the niche-center relationship at a higher taxonomic level can better approximate the fundamental ecological niche of a lineage and reveal more robust macroecological patterns. We illustrate this approach using a case study on the North American rodent genus Peromyscus, leveraging a comprehensive dataset from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and the National Ecological Observatory Network. We defined environmental space using principal component analysis of bioclimatic variables. We assessed fitness based on Peromyscus occupancy. The niche-center relationship was not supported by individual species; a strong and statistically significant negative relationship emerged at the genus level. Occupancy frequency was highest in environmental conditions closest to the genus’s niche centroid. This ecological niche supra-specific modeling framework effectively filters species-level realized niche noise to estimate better proxies of fundamental ecological niches of lineages, assess niche-center relationships, and better understand organisms’ response to global change, dispersal limitations, and evolution.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The 2025 Lancet Countdown Latin America report: moving from promises to equitable climate action for a prosperous future

  The Lancet Regional Health - Americas · 2025-10-29 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Yasna Palmeiro-Silva Institute for Global Health. University College London. London, United Kingdom. Camila Llerena-Cayo Centro Latino Americano de Excelencia en Cambio Climático y Salud. Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. Lima, Peru. Rayana Santos Araujo Palharini c Departamento de Prevención de Riesgos y Medio Ambiente. Facultad de Ciencias de la Construcción y Ordenamiento Territorial. Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana. Santiago, Chile. Christian García-Witulski Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina. Buenos Aires, Argentina Maria Fernanda Salas Human Rights Centre Antonio Papisca. University of Padova. Padova, Italy. Nicolas Valdés-Ortega Faculty of Medicine. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Santiago, Chile. Avriel Diaz Global Council for Science and the Environment. Washington DC, USA. Luis E. Escobar Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA. Carolina Gil Posse Centro de Estudios de Historia de la Ciencia y de la Técnica José Babini. Escuela de Humanidades. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. San Martín, Argentina. Juliana Helo Sarmiento Facultad de Economía. Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá, Colombia. Andres G. Lescano Centro Latino Americano de Excelencia en Cambio Climático y Salud. Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. Lima, Peru. Oscar Melo Centro Interdisciplinario de Cambio Global. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Santiago, Chile. Mónica Pinilla-Roncancio School of Medicine and Sustainable Development Goals Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean. Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá, Colombia. David Rojas-Rueda Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences. Colorado State University. Fort Collins, USA. Tatiana Souza de Camargo Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Faculdade de Educação. Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil. Bruno Takahashi School of Journalism. Michigan State University. Michigan, USA. Luciana Blanco-Villafuerte Centro Latino Americano de Excelencia en Cambio Climático y Salud. Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. Lima, Peru. Nicolas Borchers-Arriagada Menzies Institute for Medical Research. University of Tasmania. Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. Marcia Chame Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Plataforma Institucional para Biodiversidade e Saúde da Vida Selvagem e Sistema de Informação sobre Saúde da Vida Selvagem. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. Francisco Chesini Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Universidad Nacional de Avellaneda. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Carole Dalin Institute for Sustainable Resources. University College London. London, UK. Francisco Estrada Instituto de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y Cambio Climático y Programa de Investigación en Cambio Climático. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico. DF, Mexico Marcelo Firpo Porto Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. Renata Gracie Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto de Comunicação e Informação Científica e Tecnológica em Saúde. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. Nelson Gouveia Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Medicina. Departamento de Medicina Preventiva. São Paulo, SP, Brasil. Magali Hurtado-Díaz Environmental Health Department. National Institute of Public Health. Cuernavaca, Mexico. Harry Kennard University of Texas at Austin. Austin, TX, USA. Eliane Lima e Silva Universidade de Brasília. Departamento de Geografia. Brasilia, DF, Brasil. Aline Martins de Carvalho Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Saúde Pública. Departamento de Nutrição. São Paulo, SP, Brasil. Zaray Miranda-Chacon Escuela de Medicina. Universidad de Costa Rica. San Jose, Costa Rica. Nahid Mohajeri Institute of Environmental Design and Engineering. Bartlett School of Environment. Energy and Resources. University College London. London, UK Chrissie Pantoja Nicholas School of the Environment and Sanford School of Policy. Duke University. Durham, NC, USA. Tim Repke Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Potsdam, Germany. Luiza Ribeiro Alves Cunha Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Vice-presidência de Ambiente, Atenção e Promoção da Saúde. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. Antonella Risso Centro Latino Americano de Excelencia en Cambio Climático y Salud. Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. Lima, Peru. Matilde Rusticucci Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Alejandro Saez Reale Global Heat Health Information Network. World Meteorological Organization. Geneva, Switzerland. Raquel Santiago Universidade Federal de Goiás. Faculdade de Nutrição. Goiânia, Goiás, Brasil. Mauricio Santos-Veja Grupo de Biología Matemática y Computacional. Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá, Colombia. Enzo Sauma Industrial and Systems Engineering Department. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Santiago, Chile. Sol Saliva Centro Latino Americano de Excelencia en Cambio Climático y Salud. Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. Lima, Peru. Milena Sergeeva Centro Latino Americano de Excelencia en Cambio Climático y Salud. Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. Lima, Peru. Cecilia Mailman School of Public Health. Columbia University. New York, NY, United States. Juan D. Umaña School of Medicine and Sustainable Development Goals Centre for Latin America and the Caribbean. Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá, Colombia / Grupo de Biología Matemática y Computacional. Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá, Colombia. Armando Valdés-Velásquez Grupo de Investigación en Sistemas Socio-Ecológicos. Laboratorios de Investigación y Desarrollo. Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. Lima, Perú. Maria Walawender Institute for Global Health. University College London. London, United Kingdom. Juliana W. Rulli Villardi Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Vice-presidência de Ambiente, Atenção e Promoção da Saúde. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil. Daniel Buss Pan American Health Organization. Washington DC, USA. Marina Romanello Institute for Global Health. University College London. London, United Kingdom.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• CAREER: Marshaling NEON Resources to Understand Wildlife Disease Transmission

  NSF · $582k · 2023–2028

• Examining the Geography of Pathogen Spillover

  NSF · $358k · 2021–2025

Frequent coauthors

• Huijie Qiao

  98 shared

• A. Townsend Peterson

  University of Kansas

  75 shared

• Jorge Soberón

  University of Kansas

  55 shared

• Monica Papeş

  National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis

  52 shared

• Xiao Feng

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  50 shared

• Gengping Zhu

  50 shared

• Kris A. Murray

  MRC Unit the Gambia

  37 shared

• Daniel Romero-Álvarez

  Universidad Internacional SEK

  34 shared

Education

• PhD in Conservation Medicine, Ecology and Natural Resources

  Universidad Andrés Bello

  2014

• MSc. Veterinary Science, Ecology and Natural Resocurces

  Universidad Andrés Bello

  2012

• MSc. Wildlife Management, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

  Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala

  2011

• Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary

  Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala

  2009

Awards & honors

• Virginia Tech Faculty of Health Sciences, Ph.D. Program on T…
• Associate Graduate Faculty (Honorary), Graduate Faculty, Min…
• Honorary Faculty, PhD Program in Agrosciences, University La…