Born in Omsk, Russia, on February 20, 1965.
Graduated from Omsk State Medical Institute, Internal Medicine Facculty (1989)
Affiliation: 1990-2002: Omsk Scientific-Research Institute for Naturally-Focused infections; 2002-2012: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; since 2012 – Aravan LLC biomedical and consulting company.
Current address: 849 Bradford Ct. SW, Lilburn, GA, USA.
Phone:
Fax:
E-mail: aravan@rhabdovir.com

PhD ("Candidate of Biological Sciences") in veterinary microbiology, virology, epizootology, micology and immunology. The PhD thesis "Role of bats in circulation of lyssaviruses and selected arboviruses in the territory of the former Soviet Union" had been defensed in 1997.

Scientific interests include infectious diseases (particularly rabies) associated with bats: epidemiology, virus-host adaptation, pathobiology, sistematics and taxonomy of the viruses, as well as control and prevention of the diseases in humans and animals.

Major publication related to bats:

• Botvinkin A.D., Kuzmin I.V., Chernov S.M. (1992). Experimental infection of bats with lyssaviruses serotypes 1 and 4. – Voprosy Virusologii, 4: 215-218 [in Russian].
• Kuzmin I.V., Botvinkin A.D., Rybin S.N., Bayaliev A.B. (1992). A lyssavirus with an anusual antigenyc patterns isolated from a bat in southern Kyrghyzstan. – Voprosy Virusologii, 5-6: 256-259 [in Russian].
• Kuzmin I.V., Botvinkin A.D., Shaimardanov R.T. (1994). Experimental lyssavirus infection of bats. – Voprosy Virusologii, 1: 17-21 [in Russian].
• Kuzmin I.V., Botvinkin A.D. (1996) The behaviour of bats Pipistrellus pipistrellus after experimental inoculation with rabies and rabies-like viruses, and some aspects of pathogenesis. – Myotis, 34: 93 -99.
• Arai Y.T., Kuzmin I.V., Kameoka Y., Botvinkin A.D. (2003) New lyssavirus genotype from the Lesser mouse-eared bat (Myotis blythi), Kyrghyzstan. – Emerging Inf. Dis., 9(3): 333-337.
• Kuzmin I.V., Orciari L.A., Arai Y.T., Smith J.S., Hanlon C.A., Kameoka Y., Rupprecht C.E. (2003) Bat lyssaviruses (Aravan and Khujand) from Central Asia: phylogenetic relationships according to N, P and G gene sequences. – Virus Research, 97: 65-79.
• Shankar V., Orciari L.A., De Mattos C., Kuzmin I.V., Pape W. J., O'shea T. J., Rupprecht C.E. (2005) Genetic divergence of rabies viruses from bat species of Colorado, USA. – Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, 5(4): 330-341.
• Kuzmin I.V., Hughes G.J., Botvinkin A.D., Orciari L.A., Rupprecht C.E. (2005) Phylogenetic relationships of Irkut and West Caucasian bat viruses within the Lyssavirus genus and suggested quantitative criteria based on the N gene sequence for lyssavirus genotype definition. – Virus Research, 111(1): 28-43.
• Hughes G.J., Kuzmin I.V., Schmitz A., Blanton J., Manangan J., Murphy S., Rupprecht C. E. (2006). Experimental infection of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) with Eurasian bat lyssaviruses Aravan, Khujand and Irkut virus. – Arch. Virol., 10: 2021-2035.
• Kuzmin I.V., Botvinkin A.D., Poleschuk E.M., Orciari L.A., Rupprecht C.E. (2006). Bat rabies surveillance in the former Soviet Union. – Develop Biol. (Basel), 125: 273-282.
• Franka R., Constantine D.G., Kuzmin I., Velasco-Villa A., Reeder S., Wong A., Rupprecht C.E. (2006). New phylogenetic lineage of rabies virus associated with the Western pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus hesperus). – J. Gen. Virol., 87: 2309-2322.
• Kuzmin I.V., Niezgoda M., Carroll D.S., Keeler N., Hossain M.J., Breiman R.F., Ksiazek T.G., Rupprecht C.E. (2006). Lyssavirus surveillance in bats, Bangladesh. – Emerging Infect. Dis., 12 (3): 486-488.
• Kuzmin I.V., Rupprecht C.E. (2007) Bat rabies. – In: Rabies (Jackson A.C., Wunner W., eds). Academic Press (Elsevier), pp. 259-308.
• Kuzmin I.V., Niezgoda M., Franka R., Agwanda B., Markotter W., Beagley J.C., Urazova O.Y., Breiman R.F., Rupprecht C.E. (2008). Possible emergence of West Caucasian bat virus in Africa. – Emerging Infect. Dis., 14(12): 1887-1889.
• Kuzmin I.V., Niezgoda M., Franka, R., Agwanda B., Markotter W., Beagley J.C., Urazova O.Y., Breiman R.F., Rupprecht C.E. (2008). Lagos bat virus in Kenya. – J. Clin. Microbiol., 46(4): 1451-1461.
• Markotter W., Kuzmin I., Rupprecht C.E., Nel L.H. (2008). Phylogeny of Lagos bat virus: challenges for lyssavirus taxonomy. – Virus Research, 135(1): 10-21.
• Kuzmin I.V., Franka R., Rupprecht C.E. (2008). Experimental infection of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) with West Caucasian bat virus (WCBV). – Develop Biol. (Basel), 131: 327-337.
• Markotter W., Van Eeden C., Kuzmin I.V., Rupprecht C.E., Paweska J.T., Swanepoel R., Fooks A.R., Sabeta C.T., Cliquet F., Nel L.H. (2008). Epidemiology and pathogenicity of African bat lyssaviruses. – Develop Biol. (Basel), 131: 317-325.
• Kuzmin I.V., B. Bozick, S.A. Guagliardo, R. Kunkel, J. R. Shak, S. Tong & C. E. Rupprecht. (2011). Bats, emerging infectious diseases, and the rabies paradigm revisited. — Emergency Health Threats Journal, 4: 7159 - DOI: 10.3402/ehtj.v4i0.7159
• Kuzmin I.V., Shi M, Orciari L.A., Yager P.A., Velasco-Villa A., et al. (2012) Molecular inferences suggest multiple host shifts of rabies viruses from bats to mesocarnivores in Arizona during 2001–2009. — PLoS Pathog 8(6): e1002786 - doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1002786