"This is a momentous and epic decision, something I wasn’t sure I’d see in my lifetime"
- Dr Rob Davis, Edith Cowan University
The APVMA is recommending that second-generation anticoagulant rat baits be banned from consumer sale.
au.news.yahoo.com/bunnings-col...
Registration for the 2026 Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases conference at Virginia Tech is now open! Come join us June 2-4 for great science in a picturesque setting. Register here by May 1 (early registration is encouraged due to capacity limitations): cpe.vt.edu/eeid2026/reg...
NEW MARSUPIALS
🦇 Grey-headed flying foxes are one mobile colony, from Meanjin to Kaurna Country. Essential pollinators, each year travelling and feeding on the nectar, pollen and rainforest fruit of east coast forests. Send an urgent email details on the link 👉🏽
animalsaustralia.org/our-work/wil...
New preprint from our Gates-funded Modjadji initiative showing that whole-genome surveillance of measles virus from wastewater greatly expands our ability for monitoring and control.
Here, with our colleagues in South Africa - U.S., unfortunately, likely up next.
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...
Using our bee-tracking drone, we discovered that honey bees 🐝 have highly precise and individual routes. Now published at @currentbiology.bsky.social : doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
What could possibly go wrong?
“Staff members at the United States’s premier infectious-disease research institute have been instructed to remove the words “biodefense” and “pandemic preparedness” from the institute’s web pages”
🧪🦠
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
New paper from our Australia Hendra virus project! Juvenile animals often drive seasonal pathogen transmission. In our case, we find no evidence juvenile bats drive seasonal Hendra virus spillover events in Australia. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
With thanks to @jennbarr.bsky.social for the reminder re #NipahVirus #OneHealth research progress
🌏 A recent global meeting in Geelong brought together experts to share advances in vaccines & treatments, viral mechanisms, genetic diversity, and the bat ecology behind spillovers 🦇🔬
bit.ly/3Mx6kjM
🌐🦠 #NipahVirus in the news, but not a 'new global threat'
Two cases in India & a newly reported death in Bangladesh, serious, but outbreaks stay small as it does not spread easily between people.
Sensationalism doesn’t help, check AuCDC & WHO websites for advice.
bit.ly/4rHGg4E
A little over 12 months ago, 150 scientists from 16 countries gathered in Geelong to reflect on the past 30 years of henipavirus research, current developments and future directions. The outcomes of that meeting are detailed in our recent publication in EID below.
wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/...
Fabulous piece by Dani Anderson from the @thedohertyinst.bsky.social about the dangers of the media inflating the risk of small, well contained Nipah virus outbreaks.
Do yourself a favour and take a read.
www.doherty.edu.au/news-events/...
#Bats🦇 play a vital role in ecosystems, from agricultural land to tropical forests. In tropical zones some species pollinate plants and disperse seeds while approximately 70% of the 1500 described bat species eat insects, including ones that can damage crops. www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/w...
Pretty amazingly, THE WA EPA RECOMMENDED IN FAVOUR OF FRACKING IN THE KIMBERLEY
One week left - please send an (easy) appeal to protect the Kimberley's wetlands from fracking (via Environs Kimberley)
www.environskimberley.org.au/epa_submissi...
"Global electricity demand for AI simply cannot be met with terrestrial solutions, even in the near term, without imposing hardship on communities and the environment"
SpaceX is 100% correct about this, even if their proposed solution is hollow nonsense
www.spacex.com/updates#xai-...
🎧 At min 8 @alibat.bsky.social explains why #NipahVIrus isn't a pandemic threat 🦇
1️⃣ Infection contracted by consuming fruit/sap contaminated with bat saliva/urine
2️⃣ h2h spread is difficult
3️⃣ The Indian West Bengal outbreak is contained
4️⃣ Nipah‑carrying bats aren’t found in Australia
bit.ly/4ka9pTg
Do you remember when people were saying "I think my phone is listening to me, i'm getting ads for stuff I spoke about" and people said "They arent listening to you, they're just this good at predicting your interests"?
Well, it happens they were doing exactly that.
www.cbsnews.com/news/google-...
In response to the headline, Yes, but Nipah spillovers happen every year. In this case, two healthcare workers in the same hospital became symptomatic in Dec after treating the same patient &have been in isolation since early Jan. No further cases after contact tracing of ~200 people. Under control.
That exodus…represents 14% of the total number of Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) or health fields employed at the end of 2024 as then-President Joe Biden prepared to leave office.
@pducambridge.bsky.social is looking for a new lab administrator (0.5 FTE) - come and join in pushing forward our research and impact in infectious disease! www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...
Want to get the data out of a PDF figure? As in, the actual data – not a rough trace-along-the-lines version?
I made an app you might like: adamkucharski.github.io/pdf2plot/
It all started a few years ago... 🧵
With @eebdennis.bsky.social and many great partners already involved, we believe we can do more to link movement tracking data and wildlife diseases. The Move Disease Archive (MDA) is one step in this direction. Have a look and don't hesitate to get in touch if you're interested!
Flying foxes die in their thousands in worst mass-mortality event since Australia’s black summer
So sad.
Flying foxes die in their thousands in worst mass-mortality event since Australia’s black summer
Reposting to make sure it reaches the intended audience. Note that the call is opened to both international applicants and Canadians currently abroad. Internal pre-application package is due Jan 14, so make sure you get in touch asap if interested!
Applications open tomorrow via University of Sydney ARC Scholarship programme website: www.sydney.edu.au/scholarships...
See project #6 in the PDF on that site.
APPLICATIONS CLOSE close 18 Jan 2026 AEDT
Please share widely 🦇 🧬🦠🦇
Seeking candidates with a background in genomics, bioinformatics, virology, quantitative disease ecology/community ecology, or related fields. Strong analytical skills, attention to detail and scientific rigour essential. Interdisciplinary researchers welcome!
PhD project 2 (likely based in Brisbane at the University of Queensland) will leverage Bayesian hierarchical modelling approaches to understand ecological drivers of viral community dynamics, including how food stress & co-infection influence viral excretion and spillover risk.
PhD project 1 (Based at the University of Sydney) will offer opportunities to develop cutting-edge viral genomics & phylodynamic skills, and generate and analyse henipavirus genomes from up to 8 years of archived samples to test how bat immunity shapes viral evolution & persistence.
