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-...

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. ⬇️

📢🐦 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

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

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....

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...

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

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.

🧪🔬🐗 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

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

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)

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...

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/...

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

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

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

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:

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...

#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 👉

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...

Excited to share our new results published on Ecology Letters! We explored warming's impact on host resistance to a bacterial pathogen across different host lifestages, and over eco-evolutionary timescales. Check more details here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

📢 Europe needs a funded influenza research network H5N1 is spreading among animals, raising concerns about human adaptation. The U.S. has a rapid-response system. Europe must act now to establish a coordinated network to mitigate future pandemic risks. Read more: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

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.

International Conference on Lyme Borreliosis and Other Tickborne Diseases website is now live! news.mayocliniclabs.com/2025-interna...

New paper out in @animalecology.bsky.social led by the awesome Izabelle Weiler and @rayinscience.bsky.social on how parental infection affects offspring quantity and quality. Spoiler: previously infected fathers had more offspring but mothers' had more resistant offspring doi.org/10.1111/1365...

🚨 new research: "combining in vivo and in vitro approaches to better understand host-pathogen nutritional interactions" 📝 read it here:

Abstract submission for EEID 2025 is now open! We hope you'll join us June 16-19 at Notre Dame. Please spread the word! sites.nd.edu/eeid2025/

Migratory birds spread their haemosporidian parasites along the world's major migratory flyways https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.11012 #AvianMalaria #Plasmodium #Haemoproteus #HostParasiteNetwork #SpeciesDegree #BetweennessCentrality

Nothing says love like our limited edition ‘Worm Party’ collection.🪱💚Perfect for the worm lover in your life (or yourself). Hurry and grab yours before Valentine's Day! 🎁 https://s.mtrbio.com/bzijswgbxg

Huge analysis out as a preprint today! For every 9 years an animal spends in the wildlife trade, it shares an additional pathogen with humans. Clear long-term impacts based on 40 years of global trade data 🧪😷 biorxiv.org/content/earl...

Our next #IFEEAI webinar speaker is @lhmoncla.bsky.social , Assistant Professor @upenn.edu Title: Intensive transmission in wild, migratory birds drove rapid geographic dissemination and repeated spillovers of #H5N1 #birdflu into agriculture in North America.

Assessing foodborne pathogen survival in bird faeces to co-manage farms for bird conservation, production, and food safety 🐦 Results suggest that most birds on farms present relatively low food-safety risks 🌾🌏 🧪 🔗 https://buff.ly/4geoqQn

NEW PAPER: examining factors influencing tick infestation in wild birds in Colombia. Larger body size, migratory behavior, and natural habitats increase infestation probability, while ground foraging reduces it. ➡️ https://vist.ly/3mugvkt #ornithology #ticks #habitatchange

Check out our paper, co-authored by @akhorramnejad.bsky.social and me. Published in @commsbio.bsky.social We explore how global change will affect mosquito-virus interaction. We use single or multi-generational exposure to heat to address this. A 🧵 with our results (1/5) rdcu.be/d8wse

The British Society For Parasitology @bspparasitology.bsky.social is supporting the TrypsClub, a new journal club for the international community of researchers working on trypanosomatid parasites. The first meeting will be on 21st February 2025 at 14:00 GMT. Sign up here: shorturl.at/7Ay9y

Preprint out by me, Greg Albery, Barbara Han (@bahanbug.bsky.social ), and Amy Sweeny about how coinfection dynamics affect our ability to measure parasite/pathogen diversity. This research was funded by @viralemergence.org. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v... 🧪🧵(1/4)

⭐ NEW PUBLICATION ⭐ Development of a novel Haemabiome tool for the high-throughput analysis of haemopathogen species co-infections in African livestock Read more ➡️ https://buff.ly/4hgYAMW

Looking for your next volunteering opportunity that has an impact on the field of ecology? The BES Networks has a few exciting volunteering roles open👇

Glasgow's calendar is full of hosting some fantastic virology meetings this year! Register below for.... 📅 UK Pandemic Sciences Network conference (23 Apr): ukpsn.org/ukpsn-confer... Bringing together experts in the field to discuss key challenges and research developments in pandemic threats!

📰Published📰 🐛Heat waves increase survival of repeated infections for wild, but not domesticated caterpillars: fesummaries.wordpress.com/2025/01/24/h...