People

Professor Ian Beveridge

BVSc (Hons), PhD, DVSc (Melbourne)
Professor in Veterinary Parasitology
Email: ibeve@unimelb.edu.au

Ian Beveridge is Professor of Veterinary Parasitology in the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Melbourne. His research interests include systematics and biology of helminth (round worms) and arthropod (ecto) parasites of marsupials, systematics of cestodes (tapeworms) of elasmobrachs (sharks, rays, skates), ticks, and diagnosis and pathogenesis of helminth infections in domestic animals.  He has previously been employed by the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science in Adelaide, South Australia and the Department of Tropical Veterinary Sciences at James Cook University in North Queensland, Australia.  Ian contributes to the Australian Society for Parasitology and editorial boards of several international journals. Professor Beveridge is a major contributor to wildlife disease research and publications at the Veterinary Faculty, commencing with the wildlife disease unit during the 1970s. He has produced eleven book chapters, eight monographs, 270 papers in refereed scientific journals, including many on diseases and parasites of Australian wildlife.

Andrew Vizard

Email: a.vizard@unimelb.edu.au

Andrew is Associate Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology at the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, University of Melbourne. He is also the senior consultant with, and former Director of, the Mackinnon Project at the same University. This enterprise is recognised as a world leader in delivering practical advice to farmer and agribusiness on a wide range of agricultural and economic issues. Professor Vizard is the author of over 50 scientific papers on a range of epidemiological matters. Professor Vizard has also served on the board of numerous statutory bodies, scientific organisations and companies including Animal Health Australia Ltd, the company responsible for co-ordinating and administrating Australia’s national animal health programs, including wildlife surveillance, The Zoological Parks and Gardens of Victoria, the body that administers Melbourne Zoo, Werribee Open Range Zoo, Healesville Sanctuary and the Australian Wildlife Health Centre, and the Australian Wool Corporation.

Pádraig Duignan

B.Sc. (Hons. Zool., UCD), M.Sc. (Biochem. UCD), MVB (UCD), Ph.D. (OVC, Guelph)
Senior Lecturer in Pathology

Pádraig has enjoyed an international career in wildlife health research and investigation spanning over 20 years and several countries including Ireland, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Canada, the US, New Zealand and Australia. He is an expert in marine mammal pathology and worked on many new and emerging diseases of these animals in the Arctic, North Atlantic, North and South Pacific, Indian Ocean and Sub-Antarctic. However, his interests also include the diseases of terrestrial mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish and particularly emerging infectious diseases and the role of environmental perturbations and climate change in their emergence and expression. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers and several book chapters and other technical reports. He was founding director of the New Zealand Wildlife Health Centre and maintains research collaborations there and also in Europe, Canada and the US. He is an associate editor of Marine Mammal Science, a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel for Zoos Victoria, and a scientific advisor for the US National Marine Fisheries Service and the Working Group for Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Events.

Joanne Devlin

BVSc (Hons), PhD, MVPHMgt
Lecturer in Veterinary Public Health - Epidemiology
Email: devlinj@unimelb.edu.au

Joanne Devlin is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Lecturer in Veterinary Public Health – Epidemiology in the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on the pathogenesis and epidemiology of veterinary infectious diseases with the aim of improving disease control and enhancing animal welfare. The overarching aim of her research is to develop tools and strategies to control infectious diseases in animal populations. Her research interests include viral and bacterial diseases in Australian marsupials (particularly macropods and koalas) and studies of macropodid herpesviruses, including their molecular pathogenesis and interaction with the immune systems of infected animals. Her ongoing research in these areas is performed in collaboration with other researchers from The University of Melbourne and also with researchers from other national and international organizations, including Zoos Victoria and the Victorian Department of Primary Industries.

Pam Whiteley

BVSc, MS, MANZCVS and BTeach ACCM
Email: pamw@unimelb.edu.au

Pam Whiteley helped establish the Australian Wildlife Health Network in 2002 (Wildlife Health Australia since 2012) and was Australasian Section chairperson for the Wildlife Disease Association 2006-2008 and 1990-1991.  Pam did her membership exams of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists in both Epidemiology and Medicine of Australian Wildlife Species.  She was Vet and Curator at Healesville Sanctuary between 1976-86 and in 1985 had a Churchill Fellowship to investigate wildlife disease research and management in North America.  Pam did her Master of Science research into the effects of environmental contaminants on immune function and disease resistance of waterfowl with the US Fish and Wildlife Service at their National Wildlife Health Center and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.  She has worked on bluetongue virus immunology at CSIRO Australian Animal Health Center, Geelong, and on rabbit calicivirus with the Victorian Department of Agriculture at their Veterinary Laboratory, Attwood. While a veterinary student Pam undertook research on blood parasites of ducks at the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment’s Arthur Rylah Institute for the Environment, Heidelberg.  Pam and colleagues founded Wildlife Health Surveillance Victoria (WHSV) in 2008 at the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences and in 2014 WHSV was elected to the Committee of Management of Wildlife Health Australia. Pam continues to contribute to the development of wildlife health surveillance in Victoria and Australia.  She is grateful for the support of the  Hermon Slade Foundation,  Vizard Foundation, Youngman Trust, the MA Ingram Trust and donors.