Aug. 29, 2013

Kutz Lab at WAAVP Conference in Perth, Australia

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Between the 25th and the 29th of August, 2013, Dr. Susan Kutz, Gui Verocai (Kutz Lab), and Umer Chaudhry (Gilleard Lab) attended the prestigious 24th International Conference of the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology (WAAVP), in the beautiful city of Perth, Australia.  This conference was coincidental with the 50th anniversary of the WAAVP, and counted with the attendance of around 600 parasitologists from around the globe. The conference was hosted by the WAAVP, The Australian Society for Parasitology, and the Murdoch University. It was supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, among others, and sponsored by multiple drug companies. 

All three HPI members had oral presentations. Dr. Kutz presented as a keynote speaker the talk titled ‘Wildlife parasitism in a changing climate: shifting boundaries, barriers and paradigms” in the Elsevier section, representing the editorial board of the International Journal for Parasitology – Parasites and Wildlife, with great success. Susan showed in a compilation of results from recent papers by her group (Bryanne Hoar, Jillian Steele, Peter Mólnar, and collaborators) how climate may influence different host-parasite assemblages and host dynamics in Arctic environments.

She also presented in the 5th International Workshop on Arctic and Antarctic Parasites (IWAAP) a work titled “Lungworms in muskoxen in Norway – a potential threat with warmer climate?”. This is a collaborative work with the Norwegian Veterinary Institute (NVI), and was co-authored by Gui Verocai.

Gui Verocai orally presented in the ‘Conservation and Wildlife’ session. The talk, titled “Why history matters? A tale of lungworms and their hosts”, put together different pieces of his PhD research to highlight the importance of the study of biodiversity in light of historical biogeography for understanding past and present events, host-parasite interactions and faunal structure, and was co-authored by Dr. Eric Hoberg (United States National Parasite Collection/USDA), and Susan. He also presented a poster titled “Emerging from the shadows: Resurrection and redescription of Varestrongylus alces, a pathogenic lungworm of the Eurasian elk”. This piece, also in collaboration with the NVI, was chosen for a short presentation in the ‘Joe Boray session – What’s new and wonderful in Parasitology’, and was co-authored by Andrew Rezansoff (Gilleard Lab), and naturally Dr. Kutz. Gui’s attendance was covered by the UCVM Eyes High Top Flight Award and his Alberta Innovates Health Solutions research allowance.

Last but not least, Umer Chaudhry presented some exciting findings of his PhD research in the session ‘Drug Resistance – Small Animals’. The work, titled “Molecular genetic analysis of interspecies hybridization between Haemonchus contortus and  Haemonchus placei  and its implications for the spread of benzimidazole resistance mutations”, was literally in the last round of presentations, but had great attendance and some interesting questions by the audience. The work was co-authored by HPI’s Libby Redman, Umer’s supervisor John, and collaborators in India and Pakistan. Moral support was given by the presence of Susan and Gui! Umer’s attendance was also covered by the UCVM Eyes High Top Flight Award and the Louisiana State University WAAVP Travel Award.

Our HPI people not just actively participated in the conference and networked with a dynamic and diverse group of researchers in multiple aspects of veterinary parasitology, but also had some time to do some tourism around Perth and take pictures with the unique Australian wildlife! (Credit: Gui Verocai)