RTarlinton.bsky.social

Eliminating canine rabies can be done - even in the poorest places. Its not expensive and it doesn't take long it just takes the will to do it. Bhutan providing a textbook example here. www.economist.com/asia/2026/10...

Most of my immediate reaction to this can be summed up as xxxx. It was probably going to happen eventually with this group of viruses but there is going to be a bit of excitement now that its not just a livestock problem... www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-even...

Bat consumption in Indonesia, the cultural factors behind this are complicated but the disease implications are not. Sadly neither we nor anyone else have been able to raise the money to do the other side of this and check the viruses of these bats (and people) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Want to do something really valuable for conservation? Donate some money to help scientists make sure these guys have somewhere safe. Less glamorous than lions and tigers perhaps but equally important

Dog genetics for the win again… that toy breeds live a lot longer than giant breeds is unarguable but very cool seeing the molecular basis of this …

This is a mess… an inevitable consequence of dismantling your veterinary public health infrastructure but still a mess… you don’t need a lab to make the next pandemic just a dead bird being eaten by a small carnivore

Sometimes you just have to get out see your research being used - lovely afternoon at the Melton Mowbray ram sales admiring ram butts and sooo many lots being advertised with their bluetongue vaccination status and Maedi Visna Free status advertised proudly (and we tried the beer festival too)

It will be fun!

The river soar at hathern lock, parts of it are diverted for shipping canals or mill races (as here) and in the 1800s it was apparently so polluted with factory waste from Leicester it was bright pink. Nature does recover given a tiny chance…

www.bbc.co.uk/videos/c4gr9... a classic of ecological disasters …

True this … I mean I come from a country that has actually tried to eradicate a species ( rabbits) twice with two different viruses ( myxomatosis and RHDV)… the rabbits won.

On top of multiple serotypes bluetongue and schmallemberg this is going to an awful spring lambing / calving in Europe … and in case anyone wants to go on an anti farming rant this one also affects horses and deer too !

Depressing and predictable … ok the disease itself can’t be stopped in wild populations like this ( protecting rare/ critically endangered species is another matter ) but not thinking through public reaction ( and health risk) to large numbers of cadavers has been a continual problem …

I actually think we need professional registration for scientists (like I already have to do as a veterinarian) . Gentlemen's agreements are not enough to deal with the tsunami of fraud and terribly quality work. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Some of the work we are doing now on Maedi Visna wouldn't have gotten off the ground without Amanda's enthusiasm and support... her career path is far from conventional but what an impact! www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/cu...

This sort of work is what public health should be , patient, collaborative, consistent , over a long enough period of time to really see what’s happening ( and a fantastic drop in childhood deaths to boot)

Kilifi is a coastal County in Kenya, where @kemriwellcome.bsky.social has undertaken 35 years sentinel surveillance of malaria. Dramatic changes that I think aren't widely appreciated. Work led by @alice-kamau.bsky.social Highlights and link to paper:

Will be fun ( if you are like me and Katy and Emma an eve nerd)

I came first in the Clacton by-election! Of the candidates who bothered to turn up for the results. Here is my victory speech!

For UK farming people, 2026 Bluetongue impact survey now open. Please fill it in and disseminate to your networks so we can collate the actual numbers and impact at a herd/flock level. Its really critical right now! l forms.cloud.microsoft/e/c6V8mPgtRi

Privileged to have been asked to be a co-author on this paper discussing a really critical issue for high consequence veterinary diseases. Given all the control options we have at hand nowadays culling should not be the reflexive control approach www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/18...

Me, @emma-harding.bsky.social, @rtarlinton.bsky.social and @royalsociety.org are organising a meeting on endogenous viral elements! 8-9 Feb 2027, Birmingham UK. 2 whole days of EVEs! Many amazing researchers already agreed to speak. Invites: shorturl.at/jp9sh Provisional schedule: shorturl.at/8O5KV

For anyone involved in uk farming: If you missed it - link to the BTV-3 webinar from ruminant health and welfare - get your info from the vets in the thick of it, rather than your mate down the road youtu.be/UqU4-7q1rVo

If you are as obsessed with endogenous viral elements in host genomes as I am, Save the date! will be a most excellent meeting mostly organised by @thekatybrown.bsky.social (even though my name is on it) royalsociety.org/science-even...

About time there was a crackdown on this …. At its worst this is preying on the vulnerable selling snake oil . These sorts of pressures from the desperate are a huge part of what medical training and ethics is about … you have to say no a lot. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Unfortunately the 26/27 season has got iff to flying start and the news from South West England is shocking and sickening. By the start of August in 24 and 25 there were no cases in the UK, in 2026 we have over 80 already confirmed with more serious levels of mortality in sheep. Vaccinate ASAP

With BTV-3 now in the high sheep density areas of the UK we are seeing a lot of severe disease and mortality in sheep. 50 cases since the start of July means and early and hard start to the season that does not bode well. Not too late to vaccinate! experience.arcgis.com/experience/4...

There would be a lot more of these reports if more places were brave enough to look

www.science.org/content/arti... This is what we should have done, everywhere but at least the last country standing is going to give its vulnerable bird populations a fighting chance against H5N1

Another publication from Cristobal Castillo Aliaga 's PhD with us here at OneVirology, University of Nottingham demonstrating the feline leukaemia virus is likely circulating in Guigna endangered small felids) in Chile after spill over from domestic cats link.springer.com/article/10.1...

We are pleased to share that a majority of our authors would be willing to publish with us again. Publishing your papers with us is an investment back into your community, not profits for shareholders. Discover our portfolio: https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/our-portfolio

This one is a biggie in wildlife and veterinary care. It is entirely true that euthanasia is in most cases the most appropriate thing for the animals welfare (in wildlife that are bought to veterinary hospitals). bvajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...