The global expansion of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza - Prof Thijs Kuiken

The University of Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute (Sydney ID) welcomes you to our Distinguished Lecture by world-leading bird flu expert, Prof Thijs Kuiken, entitled “The global expansion of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza”.

The currently circulating high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) virus of the subtype H5 causes illness and death in wild and domestic birds and mammals, as well as in humans. This virus evolved from the Goose/Guangdong lineage of HPAI H5 virus, which emerged in commercial poultry in China in 1996, spilled over into wild birds, and spread through Asia, Europe, Africa by 2006, North America by 2021, South America by 2023, and Antarctica starting in 2024. So far, only Oceania has remained free of HPAI H5 virus. To prevent more of such emerging infectious disease events in wildlife, livestock and humans from happening in the future, a paradigm shift is needed in infectious disease prevention and control.

Thijs Kuiken is Professor of Comparative Pathology at the Department of Viroscience, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam. He graduated as a veterinarian at Utrecht University in 1988, obtained his Ph.D. in 1998 from the University of Saskatchewan on Newcastle disease virus in cormorants, and qualified as a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists in 2002. His current research interests include highly pathogenic avian influenza at the interface between poultry, people and wildlife; the pathogenesis, pathology and epidemiology of virus infections in bats compared to humans; and how to implement transformative changes in the health sciences to make the transition to a sustainable human society.