Veterinary Parasitology Research Group, The University of Sydney

24/10/2025

🎓 Huge congratulations to the newly-minted Dr. Phoebe Rivory! 🎉

Last week, Phoebe officially graduated with her PhD in Parasitology, and what a journey it’s been! From her early days as an Honours student working on tropical frog p**p 🐸💩 to leading national research on Angiostrongylus disease in dogs, Phoebe’s curiosity, persistence, and passion for parasites have shone through every step of the way.

As Jan put it best:

“I’m incredibly proud of Phoebe! She first joined us during her Honours, working on p**p samples from tropical frogs. A few moons later, she returned; clearly, the parasitology bug had bitten! From there, the rest is history. Phoebe led the charge on understanding Angiostrongylus disease in dogs and Australia like no one else. Thanks to her dedication and insight, we now know far more than we ever imagined at the start. Cheers to Phoebe!”

Phoebe’s work has had a major impact by improving our understanding of this emerging parasite and strengthening Australia’s diagnostic and surveillance capacity for canine angiostrongyliasis.

And the best part? She hasn’t strayed too far! 🧡 Phoebe has joined the Veterinary Pathology Diagnostic Services (VPDS) team as the Parasitology Technician, meaning we still get to see her in action every day in the McMaster Building.

We couldn’t be prouder of everything she’s achieved and can’t wait to see what comes next. Congratulations again, Phoebe — you’ve earned every bit of this moment! 🥂🎓

Veterinary Sciences, University of Sydney Australian Society for Parasitology

15/10/2025

Congratulations to our very own Dr. Nichola Calvani, who has been recognised as an emerging leader by the Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney in their 2025-26 Research Missions and Impact booklet. This acknowledgement celebrates her ARC-funded DECRA, which champions the use of 3D cell culture models to study parasite invasion, migration, growth, and development in vitro.https://emma-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/lscfb/133fe33c4f27295934f2a313c4ed0dc6/Faculty_of_Science_Research_Missions_and_Impact_booklet.pdf

She was also featured in this year's Veterinary Sciences, University of Sydney Research Report, available here: https://issuu.com/cve.marketing/docs/2025-ssvs-annual-research-report?fr=xKAE9_zMzMw

For more on her amazing work unveiling the secret life of Fasciola hepatica, we encourage you to read her paper on a pioneering HepG2 spheroid model, which includes amazing insights into the first three weeks of infection: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/21505594.2025.2482159?needAccess=true

She is currently busy refining and expanding these models and is looking forward to sharing more on this soon. For now, check out one of the supplementary videos from this earlier work showing immature liver fluke migrating through and ingesting human tissue without the need for a mammalian host!

07/10/2025

It’s true what they say; there’s no rest for the wicked — and we are very wicked indeed! 😈

Today, we’re celebrating the publication of 2024 AVBS Honours student Chelsie Uthayakumar’s work detecting drug-resistant Fasciola hepatica in the NSW Southern Tablelands 🐑🐮🐐🪱. With help from our amazing US research intern Hayley DeCristi, we co-designed a farmer-led investigation after local producers raised the alarm over a reported 230% increase in liver fluke in the region in the years prior.

This project began thanks to Roger Willoughby, whose close ties with the Gunning farming community helped bring together an engaged group of producers to tackle the problem head-on. Working alongside farmers, we applied gold-standard WAAVP protocols to evaluate the efficacy of triclabendazole and albendazole in naturally infected sheep, cattle and goats.

It didn't go completely to plan, and that's ok! The result is a reflective piece on the strengths and limitations of existing guidelines, which are based on the diagnosis of anthelmintic resistance in nematodes, and a call to arms for Fasciola-specific WAAVP criteria that better account for the complexities of field investigations in mixed-species, real-world production systems.

While drug resistance was confirmed, a reminder that drug failure and increases in parasite prevalence can be caused by a range of factors, from shifting climatic conditions to on-farm management practices, all of which play a role in the changing fluke landscape. We won’t spoil it all here, though 😉 you’ll have to read the paper for the full story.

Importantly, we also stumbled upon an unexpected diagnostic confounder that complicates traditional liver fluke diagnosis: the presence of Sphaeridia eggs. These free-living mite eggs closely mimic Fasciola eggs under the microscope and highlight just how crucial multimodal testing is for the accurate diagnosis of drug resistance in the field 🔬🪰.

A huge thank you to our past placement students, all of whom contributed to the lab and field work with amazing enthusiasm. An additional thank you to the wonderful Tana from the Liver fluke in Australian livestock team at The University of Melbourne for supporting preliminary snail surveillance ahead of this year’s “First frost / last frost” project 🐌❄️. More on that later!

Of course, an enormous thank you to the farmers we worked alongside on this project. Their knowledge, engagement, and willingness to co-design the investigation made it not just scientifically valuable, but a genuinely rewarding experience that gave our students hands-on insights into the difficulties of managing anthelmintic resistance on farm.

This study is part of our broader farmer-focussed research program, which integrates on-farm diagnostics, molecular tools, and producer collaboration to tackle emerging livestock parasitology challenges. Following a farmer debrief earlier this year, we’re now pursuing new lines of enquiry — including the role of wildlife hosts — to provide evidence-based answers to their questions on integrated parasite control 🦘.

Read the full article available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211320725000417

06/10/2025

☀️ Happy long weekend from sunny Sydney! One of our good friends Dr Stephen Page forwarded the below video, which is a great way to fill 10 minutes (and maybe learn a thing or two about parasites!) on a lazy afternoon.

This short film from Scientific American, “Save the Parasites,” is a fascinating exploration of a part of biodiversity that most people would rather ignore. While conservation campaigns often focus on charismatic and cuddly creatures like pandas or whales, parasites make up an enormous proportion of life on Earth. They shape ecosystems, regulate host populations, and even drive evolutionary change — yet they’re disappearing at alarming rates, often unnoticed.

The video includes a range of striking images of parasite diversity, from the microscopic to the macroscopic, and highlights the growing scientific call to include parasites in global conservation conversations. It’s a reminder that biodiversity isn’t just about the visible or the beloved; it’s also about the hidden networks of life that keep ecosystems functioning.

As a little long-weekend challenge, we invite you to see how many parasite species you can identify in the film. Keep an eye out until the end — there’s a shot that lists them all. How many can you name before they appear?

👉 Watch here:

One in three parasitic species is in danger. Here’s why humans may need to power through the ‘ick’ to save them

03/10/2025

🌟 While you’re packing for the long weekend, here’s what we got up to a little while ago at the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology (WAAVP) 2025 in Brazil! 🌟

👏 Prof. Jan Šlapeta received WAAVP’s highest honour – the Research in Veterinary Parasitology Award – recognising his outstanding global contributions in helminthology, protozoology, and entomology. A huge career milestone celebrated on the world stage – congratulations, Jan! 🎉

🔬 Jan and Prof. John Gilleard (University of Calgary) hosted a roundtable on Nemabiome metabarcoding & deep sequencing. Our own Dr Emily Francis joined seven other international experts, sharing fresh insights and unpublished work on challenges in metabarcoding – from tracking drug resistance to teasing apart tricky species IDs.

🌿 Dr Nichola Calvani co-organised two Fasciola symposia with Dr Carolina DeMarco Verissimo (University of Galway), showcasing complementary perspectives from lab and field research. A big shoutout to former intern Hayley DeCristi, who presented results from her 3-month placement on our Beyond Suspicion project – a fantastic achievement at her first international meeting. Nichola also presented outcomes of the National Fasciolosis Workshop (Melbourne, earlier this year), helping shape international research priorities for fasciolosis.

✨ A big week of recognition, discussion, and collaboration for the whole team.

11/08/2025

🧪🔬 Parasites, Pathogens, and a Trojan Horse! 🐑

A few weeks ago, the Veterinary Parasitology team was thrilled to take part in the Faculty of Science International Science School (ISS) 2025. This program brings together top science students from across Australia and around the world for two weeks of immersive science experiences.

Our session challenged students to think (and work!) like vets and scientists, investigating a sudden-death outbreak in prize merino sheep. Using a hands-on case study, they uncovered the real culprits — the liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica) and the bacterium Clostridium novyi — and explored how these two pathogens can work together in a deadly “Trojan horse” scenario.

In the lab, students learned how to:
🔍 Perform sedimentation tests to detect parasite eggs in faecal samples
🦠 Use Gram staining to visualise and classify bacteria
💡 Think critically about disease ecology, diagnosis, and prevention in real-world veterinary cases

A huge thank you to the ISS organisers and our amazing demonstrators for making the day such a success — and to the brilliant ISS students for bringing their curiosity, teamwork, and sharp thinking to the lab! Faculty of Science, University of Sydney Veterinary Sciences, University of Sydney Australian Society for Parasitology

Learn more about the International Science School here: https://www.sydney.edu.au/science/industry-and-community/community-engagement/international-science-school.html

31/07/2025

🎉 Celebrating Student Success at SSVS Prize Night! 🎉

Last night, we were proud to celebrate the achievements of our incredible students at the Sydney School of Veterinary Science Student Prize Night. Three of our AVBS Honours students, Priscilla Huynh, Olivia Kelly and Gurnoor Kaur, were awarded Australian Wool Education Trust (AWET) scholarships for their outstanding projects supporting the sheep and wool industry 🐑🧬

With only ~20 AWET scholarships awarded nationally each year, it's fantastic that SSVS received nine, and even more exciting that three went to our parasitology students!

The Occasional address was presented by the wonderful Dr. Simone Maher, who some of you may recognise from her various roles on Australian television. Each award and scholarship recipient was also given a copy of Anne Quain's amazing Veterinary General Practice Casebook!

It was a lovely evening, but one of the highlights was definitely meeting Mulligan, the gentle Newfoundland whose owner, Mr Arthur Whitten, generously supports the Ruggles Scholarship in honour of another of his beloved dogs 🐾

A huge thank you to all the donors and industry partners who continue to support our students and their work to improve animal health and wellbeing 💙



Veterinary Sciences, University of Sydney

24/07/2025

🚜🌧 Marge, the rains are 'ere! 🐌🐾

This week, our team returned from another field trip in the NSW Southern Tablelands, where we’re investigating some of the region’s most pressing parasite challenges. From mapping liver fluke risk through longitudinal snail surveillance, to better understanding how kangaroos and farm dogs contribute to pasture contamination and hydatid disease transmission, our multi-pronged approach is shedding light on both emerging risks and effective management strategies.

Importantly, this trip came just as widespread rainfall and even snow are forecast to bring long-awaited relief to drought-stricken parts of southeastern Australia 🌧️⛄️. After months of dry, cracked paddocks, the recent rain has farmers - and livestock - breathing a sigh of relief. But for parasites like liver fluke, which depend on aquatic snails to complete their life cycle, these weather events could trigger an increase in transmission risk. With our drone Bridget capturing incredible footage of landscape changes across sites, we're documenting in real time how water availability shapes host-parasite interactions on farms.

Joining us on this trip was Dr. Kath Muscat and DVM3 Research & Enquiry student Lynnette Leong, who is leading our farmer survey on hydatid disease awareness. Originally from Singapore and interested in pursuing a career in mixed practice, this was Lynnette’s first time on a working farm outside the university setting. She jumped right in - assisting with snail collection and gaining firsthand insights into the complexity (and beauty!) of livestock production systems here in regional NSW.

Stay tuned for more updates from the field as we continue our work alongside producers to build more sustainable, evidence-based parasite control strategies 🧬🌿

Australian Society for Parasitology Liver fluke in Australian livestock Veterinary Sciences, University of Sydney

14/07/2025

🐌🔬 Post-conference perks!

Following the Australian Society for Parasitology annual conference held in Melbourne two weeks ago, our Honours student Priscilla Huynh stayed on in Victoria to spend a week in Neil Young's lab at The University of Melbourne - an opportunity made possible through her Australian Wool Education Trust (AWET) scholarship.

During her time there, Priscilla was privileged to work alongside a team of snail experts including postdoctoral researcher Dr Tana Sukee, PhD student Zheyu Chen, Senior Research Fellow Dr Anson Koehler, and Dr Sunita Sumanam. Under their guidance, she received advanced training in morphological identification of liver fluke intermediate snail hosts, and may have even fallen in love with their lab's thriving snail colonies! 🐌❤️

In addition to hands-on ID work, Priscilla also processed DNA from snails collected in the NSW Southern Tablelands as part of her Honours project, which is focused on understanding the seasonality, diversity and abundance of these critical intermediate hosts.

We’re so grateful to our collaborators Liver fluke in Australian livestock for their support and to AWET for making this experience possible. Stay tuned for more updates on Priscilla’s work in this space!

08/07/2025

Our travelling team of parasitologists were away again last week, this time in Melbourne for the 2025 Australian Society for Parasitology (ASP) conference!

AVBS Honours students Olivia Kelly, Priscilla Huynh, and Chloe Burden each took to the national stage to present their research for the first time. Olivia tackled levamisole resistance in Teladorsagia circumcincta using nemabiome metabarcoding, Chloe introduced her project exploring the role of macropods in liver fluke transmission, and Priscilla shared her work on the seasonality, diversity, and abundance of liver fluke intermediate snail hosts in the NSW Southern Tablelands. All three were supported by ASP Student Travel Grants, with Olivia and Priscilla also awarded AWET Honours Research Scholarships.

Emily presented her statewide worm resistance dashboard, Jan showcased Phoebe Rivory’s headline-making research on Angiostrongylus cantonensis and provided updates on Thomas Stocker’s hookworm project, and along with presenting updates from her various Fasciola projects, Nichola co-led a fasciolosis session with colleagues from the The University of Melbourne.

Highlights included the Women in Parasitology mentoring session, winning student trivia, rounding out the conference with a dinner at the State Library, and Priscilla scoring a NEB LEGO set! She’s now staying on in Melbourne for hands-on snail ID training with our Liver fluke in Australian livestock collaborators.

A huge thanks to ASP and AWET for supporting our students and science. 🧬🐌🧫

26/06/2025

🎉 Hot off the press! Congratulations to our brilliant 2024 DVM3 Research & Enquiry student, Simran Vyas (Simmy), whose work has just been published in the Australian Veterinary Journal! 🥳

In her project, Simmy analysed five years of diagnostic data from the NSW Department of Primary Industries’ EMAI laboratory to map liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica) infection in cattle and sheep across NSW. These are the first species-specific maps produced in over 50 years, and they offer valuable tools to help farmers, veterinarians and industry diagnose infection, guide treatment choices, and prioritise research investment. They also provide a baseline for future studies looking at the impacts of climate change on fluke distribution.

💡 It’s humbling to see Simmy’s maps alongside some of the original parasite distribution maps from the early 20th century, created during the era of Clunies Ross, Robert Seddon, and Joe Boray. Many of these early observations were surprisingly accurate — and it’s exciting to see how modern diagnostics and big data are helping us build on this legacy. 🧬

While this study focused on data from a single diagnostic lab, we’re now working closely with collaborators at the University of Melbourne, Meat & Livestock Australia, and Animal Health Australia to expand this work nationally. Through abattoir surveillance, we aim to update Australia’s liver fluke distribution records and generate climate risk maps for the Eastern states where liver fluke remains endemic.

🖼️ Simmy popped in this week to proudly pin her paper to our wall of publications — an awesome achievement for a DVM3 student and hopefully just the first of many!

📄 Read the open access paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/avj.13465


Australian Society for Parasitology Liver fluke in Australian livestock Veterinary Sciences, University of Sydney The University of Melbourne Dawbuts

24/06/2025

🎓 Big congratulations to Dr Phoebe Rivory, who was officially awarded her PhD last week! Her research on the emerging parasite Angiostrongylus cantonensis - better known as rat lungworm - has made headlines across the country this week and so we thought we'd educate our amazing followers about the risks and things that can be done to avoid infection. 📰🐛

Rat lungworm disease is a serious condition that affects both humans and dogs, and Phoebe’s PhD sheds light on why cases are increasing in pets across Sydney and Brisbane. Using molecular diagnostics on over 180 dog cases, her work shows a strong link between recent rainfall and spikes in infections - an important insight in our changing climate.

🐶 Worried about your dog? Dogs become infected by eating slugs or snails, or from drinking water contaminated with tiny larvae. To help reduce the risk:
✅ Avoid leaving pet water bowls outside, or clean them thoroughly and often - especially if you ever spot a drowned slug or snail inside!
✅ Don’t let dogs play with or eat snails and slugs (this is easier said than done!).
✅ Keep an eye on high-risk periods, especially after long wet spells in autumn.

For people, infection is extremely rare but can be devastating. Many Australians will remember the case of Sam Ballard, the young man who became severely disabled and later died after eating a slug as a dare. 🐌 Please - wash your veggies, supervise kids in the garden, and never eat slugs or snails.

Phoebe’s work is a brilliant example of One Health research connecting human, animal, and environmental health to keep us all safer. We're so proud of her and can't wait to see where her post-PhD journey takes her. 🌿🔬🐾

📖 Read her latest research in The Journal of Infectious Diseases: https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiaf173

📺 Catch her story on the ABC: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-17/rat-lungworm-disease-spike-dog-infections/105408304

Australian Society for Parasitology University Veterinary Teaching Hospital Sydney Veterinary Sciences, University of Sydney University of Sydney

Researchers say it's important to keep dogs away from slugs and snails, and stop them from eating them.