Back to the field! Opened a barbershop for the bats 💈a question popped up from my last field trip - does diet (🦭vs 🐖) affect vampire bat stress level? We need a good amount of hair for both stable isotopes and cortisol analyses - a dog paw trimmer turned out to be very useful!

We extended our barber ‘service’ to the farm animals! Analysing stable isotopes in bat hair, we need references from their prey species. Thanks to the brilliant field team🥷we collected hair from 🐄🐴🐑🐖-the usual vampire bat menu.

This is the 2nd study reporting prospecting (i.e. visiting other colonies) in Northern gannets from colonies affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Breeding gannets are not known to prospect. They usually only move between their nest and the sea where they feed...

While the biggest impact has been on pinnipeds, and dairy cattle are all the rage currently, this graph really demonstrates the diversity of mammals which have been infected with HPAI to date. Detailed data in the EFSA quarterly reports.

I’m still accepting applications for this PhD on bat virus dynamics in Neotropical bats until end of April. Please RT!

Cattle are, of course, the central reservoir for influenza D viruses (a different virus species). Lots of scope for interesting work still to be done on influenza viruses in cattle. 👉doi.org/10.1016/j.covi… (5/5)

Given all the interest in dairy cattle, I've added relevant documents, reports, updates, papers (new and old) to my HPAI resource page 👉michellewille.com/avian-influenz…

🦇 New publication explores self-spreading vaccines to protect wildlife from deadly pathogens such as rabies. Megan Griffiths explains the complex interdisciplinary work behind this innovative technology. Article: gla.ac.uk/research/az/cv… Paper: science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

🚨 We have outlined some recommendations around selecting diagnostic assays for HPAI in the Antarctic setting as this will influence interpretation of results, as exemplified by our concerns around whether HPAI was present in apparently health penguins. 👉preprints.org/manuscript/202…

One thing I love about my fieldwork is that I got to meet generous people who helped us collect hair of their animals so I have a better idea of what the🦇 feed on. I’ll be back in touch with them once I analyse the samples! Ofc this couldn’t be done without my brilliant team!

Really looking forward to catching up with the influenza research community, from academia and industry across the UK and beyond, at next week's #InfluenzaUpdateMeeting, which this year we're hosting here University of Glasgow. Can't wait!

Really enjoyed the first day of the Influenza Update Meeting at University of Glasgow! So nice to be introduced to the flu community - kind and helpful people! Very grateful for the opportunity to share my work! Special thanks to Hutchinson Lab

Mortality of Elephant Seals, pengiuns, and albatross in the Kerguelen and Crozet archipelago confirmed as HPAI. This constitutes a substantial range expansion for the virus. Looking forward to seeing the genome sequences. 👉scar.org/library-data/a…

We're recruiting a lab technican to carry out virus pseudotype assays, PCRs and epigenetic ageing of bats to support a #wellcome funded project on bat rabies. Apply by 12 Feb! jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/research-t… MRC-Uni of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research UofG SBOHVM Bats 'N' Viral Bytes

Are you thinking of starting work on influenza for the first time because of... reasons? Or does your lab train people to work on flu? With Maria Amorim and Yohei Yamauchi, we've written a chapter specifically on getting up to speed on flu ... (1/2) link.springer.com/protocol/10.10…

Our paper is out🦇🦠

Come do a PhD with me using LLMs and comparative methods to understand the emergence of companion animal viruses! 🧠☠️🕸️🐕🐈🖥️ Fully funded 3.5 year PhD based at UofG SBOHVM MRC-Uni of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research supervised by myself, Margaret Hosie, and Willie Weir findaphd.com/phds/project/c…

🎉PhDone!!*🎉 This week marks the end of 4 fab years at University of Glasgow ! Feel very fortunate to have worked with so many excellent people in UofG SBOHVM and MRC-Uni of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research Papers on marine mammal viruses and modelling of host tropism incoming! 🐋 🦠 🦭 🧬 *apart from corrections 🙃

🦠 Bird Flu Update: New research highlights evolving risks of bird flu, including potential impacts on pets and the virus's ability to mutate. Stay informed and take the necessary precautions to protect your furry friends. 🐱🚨 Read more with the link in our bio!

Breaking my Twitter silence to share a great PhD opportunity I'm co-supervising at UofG SBOHVM. Funded project on rewilding, ticks & zoonotic disease risk across Scotland 🇬🇧 and the Italian Alps 🇮🇹 Full details on Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/lucane…