This summer has been a productive period for my PhD research into ranavirus in UK amphibian populations.

Over the past few months, I have been combining laboratory research with fieldwork to better understand how environmental conditions influence wildlife disease. My laboratory experiment investigating the effects of temperature on ranavirus infection has now been written up, and the manuscript is currently with my supervisors, and I hope to submit it to a journal later this year.

Alongside this, I have continued field surveys in collaboration with the Garden Wildlife Health Project, visiting sites where members of the public have reported suspected ranavirus outbreaks. These visits involve collecting samples from amphibians to improve our understanding of disease occurrence in wild populations and contribute to ongoing wildlife disease surveillance.

Over the coming months, I will also be preparing a conference poster, presenting my research later this year, and developing plans for the next stage of my PhD, which will investigate disease transmission in amphibian communities.

I'm looking forward to sharing more updates as the project progresses