News & events

Work undertaken by ESR scientists is the first in the world to show a particular and surprising immune response among people to influenza, and could help pave the way to a globally-sought universal flu vaccine. The study has significantly changed understanding of a critical part of the influenza virus, with an ESR report on its ...

A national campaign is asking beef and dairy farmers across New Zealand to help develop frameworks for disease control of bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVD). BVD is an infectious cattle disease which costs New Zealand farmers an estimated $150 million per year, primarily through reproductive issues, reduced growth rates and decreased milk production. Infected animals are ...

One Health Aotearoa Co-director Distinguished Professor Nigel French from Massey University has received the Ministry for Primary Industries Award for Significant Contribution to Food Safety. Professor French was presented the award by Minister of Food Safety Damien O’Connor at the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology conference dinner earlier this month. The award ...

One Health Aotearoa Co-director Professor David Murdoch has recently been appointed to the newly-established International Council on Adult Immunisation. The council comprises 12 global experts and advocates for older adults and immunisation, and is charged with providing technical expertise and leadership to advance the agenda of adult immunisation globally.

University of Otago researchers have discovered a novel property of a new anti-tuberculosis drug which may help develop more drugs to treat the top infectious disease killer in the world. Globally, there are about 1.7 million deaths annually that are attributed to tuberculosis (TB) with rising incidents of drug-resistant TB. Professor Greg Cook from the ...

A Massey-led study has been awarded $1,199,841 from the latest Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) funding round to undertake a nationwide case-control study of the disease leptospirosis.  A common workplace hazard in New Zealand’s agricultural sector, leptospirosis can cause disease and death in animals. It can also transfer to humans through direct or ...

Public health researcher Professor Michael Baker from the University of Otago, Wellington has been awarded $1,196,974 to develop an optimal strategy for the rheumatic fever endgame. Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and its serious complication rheumatic heart disease (RHD) produce large ethnic health inequities and remain important causes of preventable suffering and death for Māori and ...

University of Otago researchers are helping lead international studies which have discovered that exposure to cattle and rice farming are risk factors for the devastating disease leptospirosis in northern Tanzania. Dr Michael Maze from the University of Otago’s Centre for International Health, says the findings from two research papers, which have just been published in ...