Avian Influenza and SARS-CoV-2

Dr. Jonathan Runstadler, professor and chair of the Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health, has been researching avian influenza since 2005. His laboratory studies the ecology of influenza viruses in wild animal hosts, including birds, major reservoirs for influenza. In 2022, Dr. Runstadler, scientist Wendy Puryear, and postdoctoral researcher Kaitlin Sawatzki found that an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was associated with the deaths of > 330 New England harbor and gray seals along the North Atlantic coast and the outbreak was connected to a wave of avian influenza in birds in the region. The team was the first to identify virus strains unique to New England. These data forecast similar outbreaks in South American populations in 2023, and further work on the disease ecology of HPAI is helping to evaluate critical interfaces and spillover with other mammalian hosts. A global and cooperative perspective is vital in researching diseases like avian influenza and SARS-CoV-2, also studied in Dr. Runstadler's laboratory.

Global One Health

Cummings School has a long tradition of helping to address global One Health challenges. Focusing on animal health is one of the best ways to improve human health in many developing countries. Dr. Hellen Amuguni, associate professor in the Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health, is project director of the United States Agency for International Development–funded Strategies to Prevent (STOP) Spillover project, working with countries in Africa and Asia to understand and address threats posed by zoonotic viral diseases and reduce the risk of viral spillover and spread. This global project focuses on understanding risk factors contributing to viral spillover to create and implement appropriate locally designed interventions. These interventions prevent zoonotic disease, which can then be assessed to determine the efficacy of risk reduction practices and policies.

Dr. Amuguni has many years of experience working as a One Health, infectious disease, and gender specialist. Her cutting-edge work combines a multidisciplinary approach and human, animal, and environmental health knowledge to monitor and prevent current and emerging infectious diseases. Her work also integrates gender components as part of her approach. Her most recent work has demonstrated that breaking institutional and policy barriers to increase women's participation in the livestock vaccine value chain has a strong, positive impact on vaccine use and reach, improving animal and, subsequently, human health.

Lyme Disease

Tufts University's Lyme Disease Initiative brings together animal and human health scientists with a mission to eradicate Lyme disease by 2030. Sam Telford, ScD, is an epidemiologist in the Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health and director of the New England Regional Biosafety Laboratory. He has spent years studying Lyme disease, intent on finding ways to limit its spread and impact. He was involved in developing the only approved, but now off the market, human vaccine for Lyme disease. His most recent work has focused on improving our understanding of various reservoir hosts’ role in transmitting Borrelia burgdorferi to people. Understanding this natural disease ecology is critical to appropriately targeting interventions to reduce the risk of acquiring Lyme disease and other tick-transmitted infections. The work of his team has shown that the different life stages feed preferentially on various types of animals (birds, shrews, and squirrels/chipmunks), while feeding on deer appeared independent of life stage. There were also geographical differences in the patterns. Understanding these host community differences will be necessary for effective interventions.

With a commitment to solving One Health problems across the globe, Cummings School researchers have focused on advancing veterinary medicine and enhancing animal and human health for nearly 50 years.