As explored in my NESP-funded project, wild birds are routinely affected by disease, and are implicated in the spread of disease. Our research aims to improve our understanding of which wild birds are key in zoonotic diseases, and how they are implicated in moving diseases across landscapes. Key among our interests is avian influenza, with notable focus on HPAI H5N1. We carry out sampling of migratory shore- and seabirds every year, forming the basis for some publications (e.g. in Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses). 

As part of the work on HPAI incursion risk, myself and colleagues published a short 'Hot Topic' article for Austral Ecology wherein we outlined the likely negative consequences H5N1 incursion will have on Australian wildlife.

In a related project, I carried out a phylogenetic analysis of HPAI notifications to quantify ecological traits associated with avian influenza susceptibility, and to predict susceptibility in Australian species as the last continent to be impacted by HPAI H5N1. This work was recently published in Scientific Reports.

To facilitate disease incursion reponse planning by key stakeholders in government, we built an online tool that combines information on HPAI H5N1 detections, migratory bird movements, distributions of key Australian waterbirds, and their susceptibility to HPAI. The analysis published in Scientific Reports formed one of the tabs in this tool. A short paper outlining the tool and its use cases was published in Ecological Informatics.