Cornell researchers leading a multi-institutional team studying an eye disease infecting house finches have received a five-year $2.5 million National Science Foundation (NSF) award to continue their work.

The bacterium Mycoplasma gallisepticum jumped species from chickens to house finches in 1994. Though the pathogen (called a mycoplasma because it is among a group of small, parasitic bacteria that cause diseases) causes a nonfatal respiratory infection in chickens and poses no threat to humans, it causes severe conjunctivitis in house finches, making them less mobile and easier to prey upon. The disease rapidly spread throughout the house finch's eastern range and, more recently, has established itself in the West.