Analysing, assessing and reducing the risk of disease to ensure effective conservation translocations.
Species reintroductions and other translocations are increasingly important conservation tools, but history has taught us that moving wild animals around the planet can go wrong when disease risks aren't given due consideration.
Disease risk analysis (DRA) is a structured, evidence-based way of identifying and assessing infectious and non-infectious diseases which could compromise the health of the translocated animals as well as the ecosystems into which they are being introduced. Once potential translocation hazards have been identified, we try and find ways of managing the risk they pose to ensure a successful translocation.
2023-present: DRA Research Associate, DRAHS, Institute of Zoology, ZSL
2021-present: Wildlife Veterinarian, Scottish SPCA National Wildlife Rescue Centre
2019-2021: Wildlife Veterinarian and Research Associate, Garden Wildlife Health, Institute of Zoology, ZSL
2018-2019: MSc Wild Animal Health
Folly, A.J., Lawson, B., Lean, F.Z., McCracken, F., Spiro, S., John, S.K., Heaver, J.P., Seilern-Moy, K., Masters, N., Hernández-Triana, L.M., Phipps, L.P., Nuñez, A., Fooks, A.R., Cunningham, A.A., Johnson, N., McElhinney, L.M., 2020. Detection of Usutu virus infection in wild birds in the United Kingdom, 2020. Euro Surveill 25, 2001732. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.41.2001732
Heaver, J., Waters, M., 2019. A retrospective study of mortality in Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in UK zoos. Zoo Biology 38, 200–208. https://doi.org/10.1002/zoo.21476
Lawson, B., Robinson, R.A., Briscoe, A.G., Cunningham, A.A., Fooks, A.R., Heaver, J.P., Hernández-Triana, L.M., John, S.K., Johnson, N., Johnston, C., Lean, F.Z.X., Macgregor, S.K., Masters, N.J., McCracken, F., McElhinney, L.M., Medlock, J.M., Pearce-Kelly, P., Seilern-Moy, K., Spiro, S., Vaux, A.G.C., Folly, A.J., 2022. Combining host and vector data informs emergence and potential impact of an Usutu virus outbreak in UK wild birds. Sci Rep 12, 10298. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13258-2
Seilern-Macpherson, K., Lawson, B., Macadam, C.R., West, P., Reed, N., Gibson, L., Świątek, P., Gajda, Ł., Cunningham, A.A., Heaver, J., Julian, A.M., 2024. Predation of anurans in southern England by Batracobdella algira, a leech previously unknown in the UK. Herpetological Journal 34, 221–227.
Seilern-Moy, K., Heaver, J.P., Fernandez, J.R.-R., Macgregor, S.K., John, S.K., Cunningham, A.A., Lawson, B., 2021. Atypical Knemidokoptosis in Two Dunnocks (Prunella modularis) in Southern England. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 57. https://doi.org/10.7589/JWD-D-20-00152