Exactly one year ago tomorrow (February 26) the first confirmed case of COVID-19 arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand. Identified only as “a person in their 60s recently returned from Iran”, the case marked the beginning of an extraordinary period in the life of the country. A year on, what are some of the lessons we…

Researchers from Massey University and the University of Warwick have found that non-dairy stock farmers are just as likely to get infected with leptospirosis as dairy farmers, proving the disease is no longer dominant in one farming sector. People contract leptospirosis from infected animal urine, and knowing the patient’s occupation is critical to combatting the…

New variants of SARS-CoV-2 have now evaded New Zealand’s border protections twice to spread into the community. In the most recent outbreak, which placed Auckland into an alert level 3 lockdown, there are three active community cases of the more infectious B.1.1.7 lineage. While we have seen the virus mutate over the entire course of…

Today’s provisional approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine means New Zealand could start rolling out its COVID-19 immunisation programme as early as next month. In announcing the approval, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said border workers and the people they live with, cleaners and nurses working at quarantine facilities, security and airline staff and hotel workers would…

Two One Health Aotearoa investigators have been recognised in the 2021 New Years Honours list. Professor Stephen Chambers from the Department of Pathology and Biomedical Science, University of Otago, Christchurch, received the CNZM for services to infectious diseases research. Professor Chambers established the Infectious Diseases Department at Christchurch Hospital in 1987, the first such service…

Our spring 2020 newsletter includes full programme information and details for our sixth Symposium next month, and highlights Legionella research by The Infection Group at the University of Otago, Christchurch.   View the One Health Aotearoa Spring 2020 newsletter.

One Health Aotearoa investigators involved in leptospirosis research have recently published a couple of articles in the journals Pathogens and Animals. Diverse Epidemiology of Leptospira Serovars Notified in New Zealand Dr Shahista Nisa and colleagues from ESR, University of Otago and Massey University used routinely collected leptospirosis surveillance data from 1999 to 2017 to highlight the…

A new global report that provides advice and solutions to decision makers around how to prevent pandemics has just been released, with input from Massey University’s Professor of Infectious Disease Ecology, David Hayman. Professor Hayman’s expertise is focused on the relationship between viruses and how they are transmitted between animals and humans, with a particular…

How hopeful should Australians and New Zealanders be about COVID-19 vaccines becoming available in 2021? And what do we need to learn from 2020 and this pandemic as we speed towards the new year? On November 5 2020, The Conversation and Avid Reader bookshop hosted a special trans-Tasman online event, giving our readers a chance…

The sixth One Health Aotearoa Sympsoium takes place in regional hubs around the country and online in five weeks’ time. The OHA Symposium Organising Committee has released the preliminary programme which covers the big One Health issues affecting New Zealand and further afield. View the 6th One Health Aotearoa Symposium preliminary programme [PDF, 235KB] Sessions…