There were so many great talks at #IBRC2025 and so much going on that I’ve been too busy to post! The conference ended on a high with an inspiring presentation by Tigga Kingston on the mission and achievements of @gbatnet.bsky.social.

Can’t wait til #IBRC2028 in Columbia!

@ibrc2025.bsky.social

Then days 4&5 saw talks on bat-viral co-evolution by Avirup Sanyal, diet metabarcoding by Cinthia Pietromonaco, co-infection and co-circulation from @epibrent.bsky.social , and retroviruses by Jess Mitchell. So proud of all their work and high standard of presentations!

Days 3&4 brought 4 presentations in 2 days for me 🫠, and real excitement around all the incredible one health-framed bat infectious disease research being conducted around the world.

I’m excited to be at the International Bat Research Conference #IBRC2025 in Cairns with some of my PhD students - 8 talks between us!

Brent Jones @epibrent.bsky.social started with a talk on bat flies & Bartonella, and Cinthia Pietromonaco gave her first conference talk ever on ageing flying foxes

Check out the paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

And thanks to Manuel Ruiz-Aravena, Karan Kim, J-S Eden, Andy Hough, Raina Plowright @rainap.bsky.social and all the other Bat One Health authors who made this happen

@sydney.edu.au #sydneyhorizonfellow

These insights were possible due to an integrated sampling approach: pooled under roost samples (efficient, large-scale) + individual bat capture (detailed metadata but labour-intensive).
Our new statistical approach combines both, providing more precise prevalence estimates than either method alone

Each of the six viruses had distinct seasonal dynamics, but co-infections peaked during the autumn weaning period (17% prevalence in young bats, vs 5% in adults).

Nearly 25% of infected young bats carried multiple coronaviruses - one had three simultaneously.

Whole genome sequencing identified historical recombination across clades & a contemporary recombinant in a juvenile black flying fox (a 2d.ii CoV w/ insertion of a spike N-terminal domain from 2d.i).

The observed high co-infection rates in young bats may provide opportunities for recombination

Thanks Arinjay for your leadership in initiating this work — bringing together a stellar team and updated One Health Perspectives on Nipah virus spillover in India and Bangladesh.

Last chance to get your abstracts in for the 20th International Bat Research Conference (IBRC) in Australia in August!

It's shaping up to be an exciting program, in an incredible world heritage location, with diverse workshops and field trips.

Abstracts due this Wednesday 14th May!!

www.ibrc.org

Excited to share this new paper led by PhD student Cinthia Pietromonaco, exploring age estimation in bats, with a focus on Australian flying foxes. doi.org/10.1071/WR24... 🦇

Turns out, that we don't all mean the same thing when we use the term "adult" or "juvenile".

Why should we care? 1/

Congratulations to my PhD students Bel Linnegar, Avirup Sanyal and Brent Jones who cleaned up in the presentation awards at the Griffith Centre for Planetary Health Student symposium this year.
I’m proud of all your efforts and it’s great to see your great work being recognised!

I’m Alison. I’m a wildlife disease ecologist and veterinarian researching viral spillover from bats.
Much of my current work focuses on the landscape, climate and ecological drivers of Hendra virus spillover from Australian fruit bats, but also the broader viral community and ecological solutions