Interesting looking set of talks on 'What turns spillovers into epidemics?' w @jessmetcalf.bsky.social @danielstreicker.bsky.social @aineotoole.bsky.social @peacockflu.bsky.social @HouriyahTegally - 19th May www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/events/what-...

Panel Discussion: 'What turns spillovers into epidemics?'

This talk brings together experts in pathogen genomics, virology, ecology, climate science, and data science to explore how AI, genomic surveillance, and…

oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk

BTO's Hugh Hanmer, Senior Research Ecologist, is a speaker at this webinar where he'll be discussing the decline in Blackbirds in the UK and the spread of Usutu virus. Sign up to attend on the link below. ⬇️

BES - Parasites and Pathogens group@bes-parasitesgroup.bsky.social · last yr.

📢🐦 Join us this June for our first free webinar! "Diseases in Wild Birds: A One Health Perspective" Where: online, free When: 9th June 2025 Speakers, info & registration ⬇️ www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/dise... @britishecologicalsociety.org @rspb.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social

📢🐦 Join us this June for our first free webinar! "Diseases in Wild Birds: A One Health Perspective" Where: online, free When: 9th June 2025 Speakers, info & registration ⬇️ www.britishecologicalsociety.org/content/dise... @britishecologicalsociety.org @rspb.bsky.social @btobirds.bsky.social

Diseases in Wild Birds: A One Health Perspective - British Ecological Society

Join the Parasites and Pathogens SIG for this webinar covering the implications of the range of diseases present in the wild bird population.

britishecologicalsociety.org

A many-limbed creature called the sunflower star has found a refuge to protect itself from a mysterious epidemic that has decimated its population https://go.nature.com/43EIk4t

Revealed: where rare and giant starfish hide from an enigmatic killer

The sunflower star, which can be bigger than a hubcap, escapes a wasting disease by hunkering down in fjords.

go.nature.com

NEW PAPER: Bunting hosts recognize and reject parasitic eggs using achromatic contrast between markings and background. Both species show moderate rejection rates, highlighting egg pattern adaptation in cuckoo-host dynamics ➡️ vist.ly/3mz3qgh #ornithology #EggParasitism

Excited to share our data paper on fungal diseases in tall fescue! Fun and useful experience having our data peer reviewed for usability and clarity. @fletcher-h.bsky.social @kokeeffe12.bsky.social @esajournals.bsky.social esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Disease epidemics and species interactions: A manipulation of seasonal establishment of fungal diseases in an old field

Many disease epidemics recur seasonally, and such seasonal epidemics can be shaped by species interactions among parasites, pathogens, or other microbes. Field experiments are a classic approach for ...

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

2025 International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis and Other Tick-Borne Diseases Sept 7-10, Chicago news.mayocliniclabs.com/2025-interna... #MicroSky 🦠🧫🧪🧬🔬

Lots of fun working with Tim Brown @parasitetim.bsky.social on this piece for The Conversation about our recent review on the under-appreciated topic of conserving parasites. If it sounds wierd, read this to find out why it's important for biodiversity 🧪🪱🌍 👇 theconversation.com/parasites-ar...

Parasites are ecological dark matter – and they need protecting

Save the pandas, sure, but what about the worms in their guts?

theconversation.com

#OneHealth Research Alert 📢Epidemiology of human contacts of equine #HendraVirus infection in northern New South Wales, Australia, 2006–2023 onehealth.ijidonline.org/article/S294...

Epidemiology of human contacts of equine Hendra virus infection in northern New South Wales, Australia, 2006–2023

Hendra virus is an important zoonotic pathogen in Australia, with widespread presence in flying fox reservoirs and serious health consequences for horses and humans. This study describes the epidemiol...

onehealth.ijidonline.org

Our paper about conspecific brood parasitism in the spotless starling is published in Biol. Lett. We showed that starlings can discriminate parasitic eggs, and that they use egg size as a cue to eject parasitic eggs. All the details in royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #USPN #MNCN

Scientists have found DNA from plague bacteria in the skeleton of a 4000-year-old sheep, suggesting Bronze Age people may have caught the disease from their livestock.

Ancient ancestor of the plague discovered in Bronze Age sheep

The DNA of Yersinia pestis bacteria has been found in a Bronze Age sheep, offering a clue to how the plague may have spread through prehistoric farming communities

newscientist.com

🧪🔬🐗 Our latest research on Feral pigs and social network analysis. We found that females have higher contact rates and males are a key connector between different groups. #feralpigs #wildlife #UQ

Summer and sex raise feral pig disease risk

Research from UQ has found the sex of feral pigs and seasonal conditions are likely to intensify potential disease outbreaks in pig populations.

uq.edu.au

Great study by great people! doi.org/10.1098/rsob...

Evolution of resistance and disease tolerance mechanisms to oral bacterial infection in Drosophila melanogaster | Open Biology

Pathogens exert strong selection on hosts that evolve and deploy different defensive strategies, namely minimizing pathogen exposure (avoidance), directly promoting pathogen elimination (resistance) and/or managing the deleterious effects of illness (...

doi.org

Delighted to share our new pre-proof "Do specialist haemoparasites induce tolerance in their hosts?" published in Parasitology. Really nice undergraduate project work by Cameron that we then followed up in more detail. Still more to be done!! doi.org/10.1017/S003...

Amidst *everything* going on, I'm still proud to see my 2nd chapter of my PhD out in full in the latest special issue of @animalecology.bsky.social! doi.org/10.1111/1365... (1/4)

Quantifying intraspecific variation in host resistance and tolerance to a lethal pathogen

Our study highlights the importance of considering intraspecific variation in host tolerance and resistance to pathogens. We apply a multistate model as a new way to quantify host tolerance and resis...

doi.org

Happy International Women's Day!  To celebrate, we've brought together a collection of blog posts from our amazing journal editors, showcasing their work as inspiring women in the ecological community. #IWD2025 🌍🧪 https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/international-womens-day/

JUST OUT in #Conservation #Physiology: Examining #AvianInfluenza #virus exposure in #seabirds of the northwest #Atlantic🦆🧪 We looked at #avian #influenza #antibodies in eggs of 11 #seabird species in eastern #Canada and western #Iceland to better understand exposure + risk! doi.org/10.1093/conp...

Examining avian influenza virus exposure in seabirds of the northwest Atlantic in 2022 and 2023 via antibodies in eggs

Abstract. Seabirds are frequently infected by avian influenza virus (AIV), which prior to 2021 primarily consisted of low-pathogenic AIV with limited repor

doi.org

Exciting to see this monarch butterfly on the cover of @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social this month. In this issue, Astrid Groot and I suggest that parasitism may contribute to the evolution of warning coloration by selecting for anti-parasitic toxins and pigments. Picture taken in St Marks Florida.🧪

Timely work on data integration for flu spillover prediction from @haileyrobertson.bsky.social and collaborators: "Understanding ecological systems using knowledge graphs: an application to highly pathogenic avian influenza" 🔓 academic.oup.com/bioinformati...

A high lipid diet leads to worse infectious disease outcomes. Interesting implications for wildlife food supplementation. Always exciting to have a new manuscript out! Congrats @ashley-love.bsky.social @sauerscientist.bsky.social @jexpbiol.Bsky.social journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

A high-lipid diet leads to greater pathology and lower tolerance during infection

Summary: Canaries fed a diet high in lipids show more severe disease outcomes than those fed a high-protein diet, with important implications for human and wildlife disease transmission.

journals.biologists.com

Each year we celebrate remarkable ecologists in our BES awards🏆 Categories cover the breadth of experiences and career stages, so let us know which ecologists inspire you! Make your nominations by 7 April  https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/bes-prizes/

Check out a new blog about our recent paper on addressing observational biases in #zoonotic #risk prediction. It's about wildlife, machine learning, and anticipating the next disease outbreak A. Tonelli: wp.me/pzdYt-3Td Original paper here doi.org/10.1111/2041... @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social

Addressing observational biases in data-driven approaches of zoonotic hazard prediction

Post provided by Andrea Tonelli Over the past five decades, more than half of emerging infectious diseases in humans originated from animals, with zoonotic pathogens posing a growing threat to glob…

wp.me

📰Published📰 💮Heavy metal pollution enhances #pathogen resistance of an invasive #plant species over its native congener fesummaries.wordpress.com/2025/02/18/h...

Heavy metal pollution enhances pathogen resistance of an invasive plant species over its native congener

Tiantian Lin, Abdul Manan, Shuya Yang, Guoqing Zhu, Yan Wang, Zhicong Dai, Klaas Vrieling, and Bo Li. This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology review article which can be found here…

fesummaries.wordpress.com

Of mites and microbes: I wrote a short research highlight on the findings of Alix Matthews and team, who investigated trophic interactions within the microscopic community living on bird feathers. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @animalecology.bsky.social

Feather mites selectively feed on specific bacteria and fungi on feathers with potential benefits to hosts

Invited Research Highlight: Matthews, A. E., Trevelline, B. K., Wijeratne, A. J., & Boves, T. J. (2024). Picky eaters: Selective microbial diet of avian ectosymbionts. Journal of Animal Ecology. Trop....

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Our Blog Editor, Edie Abrahams (@edieabrahams.bsky.social), has provided a recap of the plenary talks she attended at the 2024 BES annual meeting. 🎙️ 📝 you can read the full post here:

BES Annual Meeting 2024: A Recap of Plenary Talks

In December last year, hundreds of researchers from around the world gathered once again for the BES Annual Meeting, this time based in Liverpool. The conference was another great success for the S…

buff.ly

Proud to be part of the team behind Animal Disease Insights! Our new platform, launching on March 1, 2025, will bring outbreak data on 130 animal diseases from 200 countries—20 years of insights, beautiful visualisations and interactive maps. Stay tuned! #veterinary #AnimalDiseaseInsights

New bat paper from our lab. Small changes in bats' diet can decrease influenza shedding and alter cytokine expression. doi.org/10.1098/rspb... #bats #influenza #iav photo credit: José Gabriel Martínez-Fonseca

Biologists are discovering a world of beings tinier than viruses that appear to be everywhere – even living inside us. We have no idea what most of them are doing, but they raise profound questions about what life is and how it got started. www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

A whole new world of tiny beings challenges fundamental ideas of life

The surprising discovery of entities smaller than viruses raises profound questions about what life is and how it got started

newscientist.com

#EarwigFunFact 12 - European earwig moms use their own feces to sanitize the nest! 💩 This unique behavior prevents pathogen growth near their juveniles, thanks to the antimicrobial properties of their feces. 🧼🔬 #InsectInnovation #SocialImmunity More info 👉

buff.ly

Check out our new blog summarising recent meta-analysis assessing treatments for the Varroa mite #pathogen of honey bees! This #invasive #parasite has huge impacts on crops from lost #pollination 🧪 @ucddublin.bsky.social @healyke.bsky.social @cristinabotias.bsky.social www.ucd.ie/earth/news-o...

24 February tackling varroa mite

ucd.ie