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Conservation Research Institute

 

Biography

Veterinarian, epidemiology with interests in the infection dynamics and control of a number of diseases in Africa and globally.

Research

My research interests focus on the dynamic processes represented in all infectious diseases, at scales from the cellular and sub-cellular through to the more traditionally studied epidemiological scales of the population and metapopulation. Mathematical modelling and more traditional epidemiological approaches are combined with detailed molecular studies of pathogen and host in a multidisciplinary framework.

All studies of any infection must also consider the ecology of the host as well as of the infection itself and its pathogenesis. I have particular interests in the epidemiological dynamics of various virus infections of humans and other animals, including influenza, African horse sickness, canine rabies and emergent lyssavirus and henipavirus infections and the methods needed to study them. Bovine tuberculosis poses interesting challenges at the interface of science and policy and is an important disease and challenge. Funded studies include the emergence of zoonotic viruses, especially in Africa, transmission dynamics of mammalian influenza viruses and their variants through natural hosts and rabies dynamics. I co-supervise several students working on the dynamics of emergent viral infections in bats, in particular Eidolon helvum, in Ghana. In addition to my research interests, I am also involved in the Cambridge-Africa programme, which focuses on building links between Cambridge and African Institutions and which aims to strengthen Africa's own capacity for a sustainable research.

Publications

Key publications: 

Lo Iacono, G., Cunningham, A.A., Bett, B., Grace, D., Redding, D.W. & Wood, J.L.N. (2018) Environmental limits of Rift Valley fever revealed using ecoepidemiological mechanistic models. PNAS www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1803264115

AJK Conlan, M Vordermeier, MCM de Jong, JLN Wood (2018) The intractable challenge of evaluating cattle vaccination as a control for bovine Tuberculosis eLife 7, e27694

TJ McKinley, D Lipschutz-Powell, AP Mitchell, JLN Wood, AJK Conlan (2018) Risk factors and variations in detection of new bovine tuberculosis breakdowns via slaughterhouse surveillance in Great Britain. PloS ONE 13 (6), e0198760

DTS Hayman, AD Luis, O Restif, KS Baker, AR Fooks, C Leach, (2018)  Maternal antibody and the maintenance of a lyssavirus in populations of seasonally breeding African bats. PloS ONE 13 (6), e0198563

Peel, A.J., Baker, K.S., Hayman, D.T.S., Broder, C.C., Cunningham, A.A., Fooks, A.R., Garnier, R., Wood, J.L.N. & Restif, O. (2018) Support for viral persistence in bats from age-specific serology and models of maternal immunity. Scientific Reports 8, 3859

Suu-Ire, R.D*., Begeman, L.*, Banyard, A., Breed, A.C., Drosten, C., Eggerbauer, E., Freuling, C. Gibson, L., Goharriz, H., Horton, D., Jennings, D., Kuzmin, I.V., Marston, D., Ntiamoa-Baidu, Y., Riesle, S.B., Selden, D., Wise, E., Kuiken, T., Fooks, A.R., Mueller, T., Wood, J.L.N. & Cunningham, A.A. (2018) Pathogenesis of bat rabies in a natural reservoir: comparative susceptibility of the straw-colored fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) to three strains of Lagos bat virus. PLOS Negl Trop Dishttp://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0006311

Glennon, E.E. Restif, O., Riesle Sbarbaro, S., Garnier, G., Cunningham, A.A., Suu-Ire, R.D., Osei-Amponsah, R., Wood, J.L.N. & Peel, A.J. (2017) Domesticated animals as hosts of henipaviruses and filoviruses: A systematic review. The Veterinary Journal

Head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine
Professor James  Wood

Affiliations

Classifications: 
Departments and institutes: 
Research keywords: 
Epidemiology