Suomessa on ensimmäisen kerran havaittu afrikkalaista sikaruttoa (jonka aiheuttaa ASF-virus) villisioissa. Ensimmäistä tapausta on odotettu, ja Vaalimaa on ehkä odotetuin paikka: Venäjän puolella tätä on ja villisiat liikkuvat rajan yli. www.ruokavirasto.fi/elaimet/elai... Pieni ketju ASF:stä:

Afrikkalaisesta sikarutosta on tehty löydös Kaakkois-Suomessa

ruokavirasto.fi

At conferences, especially when not sure how good match the session is, I am like an ant: drawn towards electric sockets.

I've sometimes wondered if there are additional reasons why bacteria thrive inside mammal guts, and this is a fascinating answer to that question. 👀

Kevin Forsberg@kvnforsberg.bsky.social · last mo.

Humans and bacteria share strategies to defend against viruses. We wondered: could they use each other's genes? Yes, both can! Bacteria can use human immune genes to defend against phages AND Human cells can use bacterial genes for viral defense. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Rohkeita rottia viimeöisessä näytteenottokohteessa! Kolmas ja viimeinen aineistonkeruukesä käynnissä 🌞 Brave rats at our sampling site last night! Our third and final data collection summer has begun 🌞

This week at @pollenetwork.bsky.social conference in Barcelona and figuring out whether political ecologists are a group that I would like to hang out with! I'm giving a talk in Wednesday second session on rats and waste citizenship: nomadit.co.uk/conference/p...

Rat as an indicator species for waste infrastructure and good waste citizens

Rats are the ultimate waste animal/animal waste as they depend on human waste streams. In fact, they thrive on our waste streams so well, that they are

nomadit.co.uk

Dutch Research Council has funding for outside-of-the-box ideas and they want two-minute videos to summarize the projects. Well, happy to oblige! I'm one of the finalists pitching at Teknowlogy innovation festival next Thursday! www.teknowlogy.nl/programme-it...

Dustbag Metabarcoding: Citizens as active samplers of home biodiversity | dr. T.J.E. Aivelo

YouTube video by NWO Wetenschap (Videos)

youtu.be

@aivelo.bsky.social (from Institute of Biology Leiden) at #NWOLife2026 on Rodenticide use potentially affects zoonotic dynamics in urban rodents: findings from brown rats in Helsinki, Finland

What studying rats in Helsinki has taught me? At least that Helsinki is not New York, apparently. Always happy to talk about rats and this time with Deutsche Welle Living Planet podcast! The episode can be found in: www.dw.com/en/rats-revi... and all your regular podcast services.

Rats, revisited

We thought we were done talking about rats. Then your questions came in. From plague myths to poisoned predators, population growth and climate change to urban allotment gardens in Helsinki, this bonu...

dw.com

Rather surprisingly, Leiden seems to be at the center of hantavirus news. Yesterday BBC News reporter was doing a live broadcast outside of our hospital.

Our latest research shows that wild mice don’t exhibit strong fear responses to native predator scents when food motivation is high. Ecological context shapes risk-sensitive behavior more than we expected. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #UrbanEcology

New in @science.org ‼️ In the most comprehensive study to date, we show that wildlife trade is driving animal-to-human zoonotic spillover at a planetary scale, with +1 spillover per host every 10 years. Live animal markets and illegal trade pose even greater risks. 🔓 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Tiistaina Keskusteluja Kontulassa -sarjassa puhutaan rotista kaupunkieläiminä - tervetuloa Kontulan kirjastoon 14.4.! helmet.finna.fi/FeedContent/...

Shortly: Method works and Helsinki rats have 13% positivity rate which is high compared to other screened pathogens. So what? Difficult to say as zoonotic risks of (para)jeilongviruses are unknown, though paramyxoviruses are known to switch host species. Clinical consequences to rats? No idea.

🚨 New paper 🚨 Colleagues from Sironen & Jääskeläinen lab's developed a pan-jeilong-RT-qPCR for jeilong- and parajeilongvirus detection and used it on our rats and other Finnish and Latvian wildlife. Congrats and thanks Emilia for the paper! Link to the paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.jv...

"We think of nature as somewhere else, outside our homes. But we are nature. This perspective encourages us to rethink everyday interactions with spiders, mice, snails, and garden wildlife", I say in a newspiece for @unileiden.bsky.social www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2026...

Never home alone: which species share your house (unwanted or not)?

From spiders in the bathroom to mice in the kitchen, we share our homes with far more species than we realise (whether we like it or not). Researchers at Leiden University and the University of Helsin...

universiteitleiden.nl

We verzamelen verhalen over hoe Nederlandse mensen samenleven thuis met niet-menselijke huisgenoten - deel ook jouw verhaal!

Universiteit Leiden@unileiden.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Van rat tot kat: met wie deel jij (ongewenst) je huis? Bijzonder onderzoek over ons samenleven met andere dieren in huis.

Meet three scientists who said no to Epstein. The warning signs included a web search, a mother’s doubts, and inklings of a “sexist attitude” www.science.org/content/arti...

Meet three scientists who said no to Epstein

The warning signs included a web search, a mother’s doubts, and inklings of a “sexist attitude”

science.org

One of the things I least anticipated about being a lab PI is how often it appears to be actually impossible to exchange money for goods.

Tällä viikolla on puhuttu paljon koronapandemiasta ja kirsikaksi kakun päälle - tai pääruuaksi alkupalojen jälkeen - Koronapandemian hallinta ja saadut opit Suomessa -raportti julkaistaan tänä perjantaina klo 13 alkaen webinaarissa. Ilmoittautuminen ja lisätiedot: sites.utu.fi/pandemianopi...

We already have more than 💯 participants for #ExE2026, but there are still places available. Once you have registered, you have until April 1 to submit an abstract, so don’t miss out and register now at sites.exeter.ac.uk/exe/registra... Everything you need to know is 👇 and at evoxeco.uk!

Erik Postma@erikpostma.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Interested in the interface of evolution 🧬 and ecology 🌳? Then you cannot miss #ExE2026! Hosted by @uniexecec.bsky.social in beautiful #Cornwall, this #conference has a stellar line-up of speakers and lots of pre-and post-conference workshops. Space is limited, so register now at evoxeco.uk!

Kun nyt taas mediassa jaellaan käsityksiä, että (hengitystie)tartuntatautien sairastaminen on hyvästä, koska sitten sairastaa vähemmän tartuntatauteja, niin ehkä on hyvä muistuttaa: paitsi että logiikka on omituinen, sillä ei myöskään ole tieteellistä pohjaa. www.hs.fi/mielipide/ar... Ketju: (1/11)

Lukijan mielipide | Infektiot eivät katoa maailmasta, mutta niiden kanssa voidaan elää

Infektiot ovat olennainen osa ihmiselämää ja niiden torjunta vaatii harkintaa.

hs.fi

Colleagues are in their rat era: would you be interested in a PhD on the social sciences of the human-rodent-disease interface? www.inn.no/english/rese... @aivelo.bsky.social

Farmer Health: Assessing Risks and Mitigation Strategies for Rodent-borne Zoonoses in Food Production under Climate Change - University of Inland Norway

RoBoZoo is an interdisciplinary project that investigates the interactions between small rodents and humans to understand how they are influenced by climate change and agricultural practices, how this...

inn.no

"Epäily on, että rotta viettää aikaa edelleen pullavitriinin alla." Jos luulee, että hygge on vain tanskalaisten omaisuutta, ei ole tutustunut tuholaistorjujien kohdemerkintöihin.

Ilo työskennellä Juhan kanssa @helsinkirats.bsky.social! Oli isompi vaikutus hankkeen ja oman tutkimukseni suuntaan kuin etukäteen oletimme. ”Mä teen yhtä ja samaa elokuvaa koko ajan -- vaikeudesta ja toiveesta löytää yhteinen kieli ihmisen ja eläimen välille.” suomenkuvalehti.fi/paajutut/tuo...

Tuore tassunjälki hangessa – ainakin yksi Urjalan susi on jahdin jälkeen hengissä

Dokumentaristi ja metsästäjät kulkivat samoilla jäljillä. Riistakameran videokilipeistä syntyy elokuva, jossa sudet yhä elävät.

suomenkuvalehti.fi

Bees 🐝

Tutkijamme Santtu Pentikäinen vei Apun toimittajan tutustumaan hankkeemme kenttätöihin roskakatoksiin ja takapihoille - ja tästähän tulikin elämän (ja kuoleman)makuinen juttu! www.apu.fi/artikkelit/r...

Ensin katamme rotille buffetin, sitten myrkytämme – Seurasimme tutkijaa, joka haluaa katkaista ”julman kierteen”

Helsingissä on tutkittu kaupunkirottia jo vuosia. Ekologi Santtu Pentikäinen kiertää itähelsinkiläisiä roskakatoksia osana tätä tutkimusta.

apu.fi

This is an interesting article - but it buries FAR too deeply the important idea that new tech can make the field accessible to people who cannot, for various reasons, participate in field work. It's there - but gosh it's buried deeply!

British Ecological Society@britishecologicalsociety.org · 7mo ago

New technologies are revolutionising ecology, with more data than ever available at our fingertips. But what are the costs and perils of ecologists doing less field work? Interviews with several BES members in this fascinating @nature.com article

All signs are there for Great Rodent Uprising of 2026! First there was this guy (or girl) moving into our kitchen:

Sun is apparently shining in Helsinki as the local newspaper has a live stream on it. Also, I use this screen capture to show my Dutch colleagues that that's what midday sunshine in Finland means during wintertime.