It's been a busy few weeks for the Frog Research Team in terms of giving seminars, organising/attending conferences, and giving public talks!
On the 13th October, PhD candidate Thais Sasso Lopes gave her Thesis and Candidature Review Milestone seminar, and passed with flying colours! Congratulations Thais!
On 2nd November, Thais presented the main results of her second chapter on detecting the chytrid fungal pathogen from water using environmental DNA at the 1st Joint CPHFS & ARCHE Student Symposium Griffith University for 2021, and was awarded Second Place (and $300) in the "Approaching graduation category"! Congratulations again Thais!
On 6th November, PhD candidate Madelyn Mangan gave a talk on frogs to a public Landcare group at Adjinbilly Rainforest Retreat in conjunction with Harry Hines from Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. It was a fun day and they had a great turnout!
On 7th November, Jaimee Wheelhouse, Laura Grogan, and Alison Peel organised a mini-conference for the Queensland region of the Wildlife Disease Association Australasia Section that was held at Australia Zoo (see flyer).
It was a fantastic event with 2 keynote presentations, 17 speakers, and around 40 attendees altogether.
The first keynote presentation was by Dr. Alison Peel who discussed "Interactions between land-use change, flying fox ecology and viral spillover".
The second keynote presentation was by Assoc. Prof. Celine Frere: "Emerging infectious fungal disease (Nannazziopsis spp.) in free-living eastern water dragons, and relationships with social behaviour".
The annual Arizona State University IRCEB Amphibian Disease Meeting has been held virtually this year over the mornings of Friday 12th and Saturday 13th November (Brisbane time). Most of our team members presented across both sessions.
PhD candidate Matt Hollanders presented "Recovered frog populations coexist with endemic Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis despite pathogen load-dependent mortality".
Dr. Laura Grogan presented "Tolerance of infection redefined: accounting for immunopathology and time", followed soon after by PhD candidate Josie Humphries "The role of metamorphic restructuring in amphibian susceptibility to chytridiomycosis".
PhD candidate Thais Sasso Lopes presented "Discrepancy in Bd detection from environmental and host samples", followed by PhD candidate Madelyn Mangan "Modelling the impacts of invasive predator removal on pathogen-mediated competition in a two-host amphibian chytridiomycosis system".
Madelyn was also awarded the highly coveted "Lightning Flash Award for the most entertaining lightning talk or presentation". Congratulations Madelyn!
On the evening of Friday 12th November, Laura Grogan and Honours student Stephen Molan gave a public talk about urban frogs and threats to frogs at a book launch for a gardening book, at Reload Espresso Bar, Salisbury, QLD.
It was a fantastic venue and turnout and an art auction on the night raised $500 for frog research! Steve also received much applause for having submitted his Honours thesis that same day! Congratulations Steve!
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