Valentin Kiss
PhD student at University of Antwerp
Disease ecology - Urban ecology - Ornithology
Currently tracking superspreaders in the belgian urban jungle 🦠🐦🏙️
- Reposted by Valentin KissLove this new evidence of the cognitive sophistication of cows and hope that it might make a few people rethink whether they want meat on their plates www.newscientist.com/article/2511...
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- Reposted by Valentin Kissthe device:
- Reposted by Valentin KissFriendship is magic: male dolphins with close friends age more slowly theconversation.com/friendship-i...
- Reposted by Valentin KissKeynote nominations are now open for the BOU 2027 Spring Conference on Avian Disease Ecology! Submit via the conference webpage: bou.org.uk/event/avian-... Also thrilled to announce that Prof. Dana Hawley (@danahawley.bsky.social) will deliver the Alfred Newton Lecture. Please share!
- 377 #pigeons sampled later, I’m happy to share that the first paper from my PhD is published in One Health Journal It’s about monitoring #disease in the #urban #landscape and why a one number city-level #prevalence report can be misleading You can read the full PDF here: doi.org/10.1016/j.on...
- The highlights of the paper 1/2 🏙️ Fine-scale spatial heterogeneity of Chlamydia psittaci prevalence in feral pigeons within Antwerp city. 🔍Variation within Antwerp comparable with differences among cities worldwide. 🔬At least 12 unique sampling sites are needed for reliable city-level prevalence.
- Reposted by Valentin Kiss🚨 New Research Alert! Urban air pollution harms wildlife too. A study in Journal of Hazardous Materials shows yellow-legged gull chicks in Barcelona act as sentinels for air quality. 🐦🌆 🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2… #OneHealth @icmcsic.bsky.social @jnavarro.bsky.social
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- Reposted by Valentin Kiss🎓 Funded #PhD studentships in pathogen biology and parasitology *Cell and Molecular Biology*; *Host-pathogen interactions* Part of the EastBio Doctoral Landscape Award Based in the Edinburgh area of Scotland PhD 1: bit.ly/Host-pathoge... PhD 2: bit.ly/Parasite-sca... @uoe-eid.bsky.social
- Reposted by Valentin KissNow out in @natcomms.nature.com Kudos to @tylim.bsky.social and @jameshay.bsky.social for a huge effort and thanks to all the collaborators for their hard work. See the final version here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- How do you track an ongoing epidemic, especially without large-scale testing? We explored the use of routinely collected RT-qPCR cycle threshold values in our new preprint out now! doi.org/10.1101/2024... 1/
- This week I had the opportunity to present some results from my #PhD project at the #NVG conference. I shared our work on #Chlamydia psittaci prevalence in feral #pigeons within a #OneHealth framework, highlighting why fine-scale reporting is essential when monitoring #disease dynamics in cities. 🏙️
- Reposted by Valentin KissNEW PAPER: how does urban noise, lights, and stress disrupt birds’ sleep? This review shows that our knowledge about this is fragmeneted and calls for direct tests linking disturbed sleep to bird behavior, fitness, and survival. ➡️ vist.ly/4e7dj #ornithology #birds #urbanecology 🪶
- Reposted by Valentin KissWhat makes PhD students happy? Good supervision www.nature.com/articles/d41...
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- Reposted by Valentin KissComparing the feral city pigeon with its wild form, Early Career Fellow @willjsmith.bsky.social endeavors to reveal whether feral species are experiencing reverse-domestication or proceeding down a new evolutionary trajectory. media.leverhulme.ac.uk/feature/wsmith @uniofnottingham.bsky.social
- Perceptions of #pigeons are not trivial. How we see them (either as companions or gross rats with wings) shapes the behaviour and #management policies that structure pigeon populations and the #pathogens they carry.
- People’s attitudes translate into action. Feeding increases flock density and contact rates, facilitating disease #transmission. Repealing procedures (noise machines, spikes, and culling) increase stress levels, which may in turn impact immune function and disease shedding.
- Cities aren’t uniform. Neither is disease. 🦠🏙️ Psittacosis in #urban feral #pigeons shows fine-scale heterogeneity, even a few kilometres can make a big difference. City averages risk hiding the true #hotspots without dense spatial sampling #DiseaseEcology #UrbanEcology #EOU25
- Shoutout to the pigeon team and many thanks to @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social for the travel grant, @bangoruniversity.bsky.social for covering the conference fee & the chance to volunteer, and @uantwerpen.be for funding my PhD project.
- One of my undergrad papers on coot eggs was referred to in a talk on blue tit eggs changing shape over time at #EOU2025, during the #BOU Woodland Birds pre-congress meeting Cool to see it resurface doi:10.24193/subbbiol.2021.1.04
- Big day for psychedelic assisted therapy and research in the European Parliament! 🇪🇺 Today, was launched: 🔹 PAREA’s MEP Action Group on Psychedelics in Healthcare (relaunch) 🔹 The European Citizens #PsychedeliCare Initiative #PsychedelicScience #MentalHealth #HealthcareInnovation #EUPolicy
- Reposted by Valentin Kiss🚨 Job alert 🚨 — are you interested in understanding how mobile genetic elements and defence systems shape bacterial genome evolution? 🧬 🧪 🧫 🦠 2x 5-year research positions available in experimental evolution @mermanchester.bsky.social Join us! #microsky www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
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- Reposted by Valentin KissJob alert! We seek to appoint a new Lecturer in Evolutionary Biology in the School of Biological Sciences, find out more at the link below! www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...
- Reposted by Valentin KissThe first paper of your PhD is always so exciting! 🤩 An all-#Galbatross effort, "A focus on females can improve science and conservation!" See press release (www.audubon.org/news/researc...) and the study here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...! #FemaleBirds #FemaleBirdDay
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- One of the standouts: calling for sharing fine-scale spatial data on infection patterns, as this fine-scale data is crucial for uncovering disease dynamics!
