Emerging viral threats in Australia

Erin Harvey; Charles S. P. Foster

doi:10.1071/MA24010

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Emerging viral threats in Australia

Erin Harvey

^A and Charles S. P. Foster

^B ^C ^*

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Sydney Institute for Infectious Diseases, School of Medical Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

^B Virology Research Laboratory, Serology and Virology Division (SAViD), NSW Health Pathology, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

^C School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Dr Erin Harvey is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Sydney in the research group of Prof. Eddie Holmes (Virus Emergence and Evolution group). Her research focuses on using metatranscriptomic virus discovery to investigate the evolution and ecology of viruses in Australia, with a particular interest in native marsupials, parasitic invertebrates and the effects of changing land use on the viromes of native species.

Dr Charles Foster is an early career who investigates big questions in evolutionary biology, including the evolutionary timescale of flowering plants, the evolution of live birth in vertebrates, and virus evolution. Since 2020, Charles has worked as a bioinformatician within the Virology Research Laboratory (University of New South Wales). His research involves developing bioinformatics pipelines for genomic epidemiological surveillance of SARS-CoV-2, high-throughput antiviral resistance testing of human cytomegalovirus, and associations of the human virome with disease outcomes.

^* Correspondence to: charles.foster@unsw.edu.au

Microbiology Australia 45(1) 32-37 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA24010

Submitted: 25 January 2024 Accepted: 4 March 2024 Published: 19 March 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the ASM. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY).

Abstract

Pathogenic viruses pose significant threats to human health. Consequently, it is important to consider the mechanisms by which viruses might emerge and spread both within Australia and internationally. Australia is relatively isolated from major global population centres, reachable only by international flight or long boat journey (with the exception of the most southern and eastern parts of Indonesia). This isolation, coupled with the island nature of Australia, allows broadly effective interventions to be put in place to minimise the effect of viruses circulating internationally. However, the threats posed by virus transmission emerging from within Australia, including from novel animal reservoirs as a consequence of anthropogenic activities, warrant investigation. Here we discuss the current emerging viral threats to Australia and the likelihood of a virus emerging from a domestic reservoir. We also discuss the importance of virus discovery methods for understanding the diversity and ecology of viruses in our invasive and native wildlife populations.

Keywords: animal reservoir, infectious disease, virus discovery, virus emergence, zoonosis.

Biographies

Dr Erin Harvey is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Sydney in the research group of Prof. Eddie Holmes (Virus Emergence and Evolution group). Her research focuses on using metatranscriptomic virus discovery to investigate the evolution and ecology of viruses in Australia, with a particular interest in native marsupials, parasitic invertebrates and the effects of changing land use on the viromes of native species.

Dr Charles Foster is an early career who investigates big questions in evolutionary biology, including the evolutionary timescale of flowering plants, the evolution of live birth in vertebrates, and virus evolution. Since 2020, Charles has worked as a bioinformatician within the Virology Research Laboratory (University of New South Wales). His research involves developing bioinformatics pipelines for genomic epidemiological surveillance of SARS-CoV-2, high-throughput antiviral resistance testing of human cytomegalovirus, and associations of the human virome with disease outcomes.

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