Spring 2024
- The lab welcomed new master's student Paula Castiblanco who will be looking at respiratory diseases in moose with the Penobscot Nation Department of Natural Resources
Fall 2023
- We are excited to announce Dr. Olivia Choi successfully passed her dissertation defense! Way to go Olivia!
- Tegwin Taylor successfully passed her PhD candidacy exams! Congrats Tegwin!
- The lab welcomed Dr. Zoe Barandongo as a Post-Doctoral Associate working on pneumonia in white-tailed deer
- The lab welcomed Melissa Simon as a Research Assistant and Lab Manager
- The lab welcomed new master's student Monica Miles on the moose-winter tick project
- PhD candidate Alaina Woods traveled to the national Entomological Society of America annual conference in National Harbor, MD to present in a special session on "One Health at the Arthropod-Vector-Animal-Landscape"
- Master's student Annie Stupik traveled to The Wildlife Society National Conference to present her thesis work!
- Master's student Annie Stupik presented her thesis research at the Maine Wildlife Society Annual Meeting
SPRING 2023
- Alaina won the Best Student Poster Award at the 55th Annual North American Moose Conference!
- Dr. Kamath, Annie and Alaina went to the 55th Annual North American Moose Conference in Grand Portage, Minnesota!
- A M.Sc. Assistantship position is available in the Kamath Lab in One Health and moose parasite ecology for Fall 2023. Come join us!
- Now hiring a postdoc for a project focused on deer pneumonia metagenomics!
- Annie Stupik presented her research at the Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (NEAFWA) conference
- Dr. Stephanie Shea was interviewed about her work with Maine's wild turkeys for the Bangor Daily News, the article link can be found here and here.
- Dr. Stephanie Shea was interviewed by News Center Maine for her work with LPDV in wild turkeys!
FALL 2022
- Dr. Melanie Prentice was featured on the University of Maine Faculty Spotlight this semester! The article can be found here.
- Annie Stupik presented her research at the Maine Wildlife Society Annual Meeting.
- Annie Stupik completed an internship with Maine Sea Grant, hosting workshops on how to best facilitate a meeting.
SUMMER 2022
- Drs. Kamath and Prentice received funding from the Pittman-Robertson grant to work with the USGS, University of Wisconsin and Wisconsin DNR.
- The lab attended the International Wildlife Disease Association Conference in Madison, WI.
- Alaina passed her comprehensive exams!
- Olivia received the award for Honorable Mention for Best Student Talk at the WDA Conference!
- Alaina received the award for Best Student Poster at the WDA Conference!
- Alaina successfully hosted a webinar sharing results from the 2021 Moose Health Hunter Harvest Surveillance Effort. A recording of the webinar can be found here.
- Annie Stupik presented her research at the USGS Fisheries and Wildlife Research Coop Unit Meeting.
- Annie Stupik completed an internship with Peace Corps developing an environmental education manual.
SPRING 2022
- Dr. Kamath and Ph.D. student Tegwin Taylor were awarded the Portland Gateway Convergence Maine SEED grant. The press release can be found here.
- The lab is excited to welcome Dr. Stephanie Shea in her new role as Post-doc and lab manager!
- Dr. Kamath and Ph.D. student Alaina Woods received funding through the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund to continue their work sampling hunter harvested moose.
- Annie Stupik presented her research at the New England Society of American Foresters Meeting.
FALL 2021
- Dr. Stephanie Shea successfully defended her PhD dissertation!!!
- Carly Dickson successfully defended her master's thesis!!!
- Dr. Kamath was featured on the U Maine Podcast discussing research being done with PhD student Alaina Woods on the moose-winter tick system. The episode can be found here.
- Two under-graduate students in the lab received U Maine Center for Undergraduate Research Fellowships!
- PhD candidate Stephanie Shea published a paper with Dr. Kamath in Wildlife Society Bulletin titled "Detecting lymphoproliferative disease virus in Wild Turkeys using cloacal swabs"!
- PhD candidate Olivia Choi published a paper with Dr. Kamath in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution titled "High-throughput sequencing for examining Salmonella prevalence and pathogen-microbiota relationships in barn swallows".
- The lab is excited to welcome new master's student Annie Oviedo being co-advised by Dr. Sabrina Morano!
- The lab is excited to host two under-graduate research capstone projects this year through the Animal and Veterinary Sciences program at U Maine!
SUMMER 2021
- Dr. Kamath co-authored a paper published in the Royal Society Open Science in May of 2021, titled "The roles of environmental variation and parasite survival in virulence-transmission relationships".
- Dr. Kamath co-authored a paper published in Proceedings of The Royal Society B in May of 2021, titled "Disease or drought: environmental fluctuations release zebra from a potential pathogen-triggered ecological trap".
- Previous master's student James Elliot published a manuscript with lab member Caroline Dickson and Dr. Kamath in Journal of Wildlife Diseases titled "Prevalence and risk factors of Anaplasma infections in eastern moose (Alces alces Americana) and winter ticks (Dermacentor albipictus) in Maine, USA".
- The lab hosted a REU student through the U Maine One Health REU program from UCLA!
SPRING 2021
- Master's student Carly Dickson was featured in UMaine News for being awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study zoonotic diseases in Germany! Congrats Carly! Find the article here.
- Madison successfully defended her honors thesis, titled Identifying risk factors of Anaplasma infection in Plains Zebra of Etosha National Park, Namibia, and received highest honors for her defense! Way to go Madison!
- Dr. Kamath was one of nine faculty mentors to receive the Maine Impact Week 2021 Faculty Mentor Impact Award. This is a student nominated award for faculty mentors who had important impacts on their students. A well deserved award for Dr. Kamath!
- Dr. Kamath was invited to speak at the 48th Maine Biological and Medical Sciences Symposium in April of 2021.
- A three year study started in January of 2021, funded by the Morris Animal Foundation, to investigate individual moose vulnerability to infection from winter ticks. A press release from the Morris Animal Foundation can be found here, along with a University of Maine press release, here.
- Dr. Kamath co-authored a paper in Molecular Ecology titled "Population structure, inbreeding and stripe pattern abnormalities in plains zebras".
FALL 2020
- Dr. Kamath published a paper in Molecular Ecology titled "Harnessing genomics to trace the path of a viral outbreak in African lions".
- Dr. Kamath co-authored a paper in Evolutionary Applications titled "A revised classification framework for Bacillus anthracis defined by global genomic structure".
- Dr. Kamath co-authored a paper in Molecular Ecology titled "Movement ecology and sex are linked to barn owl microbial community composition".
- Dr. Kamath and PhD candidate Olivia Choi co-authored a paper in Molecular Ecology titled "Migration, pathogens, and the avian microbiome: a comparative study in sympatric migrants and residents".
SPRING 2020
- Recruiting a postdoc in wildlife disease genomics, to join an interdisciplinary team studying the ecology and evolution of anthrax in southern Africa. Apply now!
- Mar 2020: Shannon O'Grady (AVS undergrad) was featured as part of the UMSS Student Symposium, as a recipient of a CUGR AY19-20 Fellowship!
- Feb 2020: Recruiting a PhD student as part of our new One Health NSF graduate training program to study infectious disease in moose. See here for further details on the position and how to apply. Coming join our lab!
FALL 2019
- Oct. 2019: Our paper is published in Scientific Reports on the pathways of bacterial spillover between wild and domestic Caprinae. See UMaine article on the paper.
- Oct. 2019: Book chapter on M. ovipneumoniae in bighorn sheep has been published by Cambridge University Press in a new Wildlife Disease Ecology book.
- Sept. 2019: UMaine has received a $3M NSF-NRT grant to develop a new grad program in One Health. See press release here.
SUMMER 2019
- Aug. 2019: Congrats to Steph Shea for passing her comps!
SPRING 2019
- May 2019: Congrats to our graduating students: Jimmy Elliott (MS, Forest Resources), Carly Dickson (BS Zoology), Julia Cleary (BS, Animal and Veterinary Science, AVS), Jake Bowker (BS, AVS), and Kristie Pinto (BS, AVS)!
- April 2019: Congratulations to Jimmy Elliott for successfully defending his MS thesis! Way to go!
- On March 16th, Pauline is participating in a Maine Science Festival panel on the Ecology of Disease! View the full schedule of events online.
- February 2019: Congrats to Olivia Choi for passing her PhD comps and advancing to candidacy!
FALL 2018
- Dec. 2018: Congrats to Shannon O'Grady for receiving a J. Franklin Witter Undergraduate Award for her research project on avian hemosporidians in birds associated with a farm environment.
- Nov. 2018: Congrats to Jake Bowker - awarded $1,100 from Center for Undergraduate Research (CUGR) to study Lyme disease prevalence in moose and winter ticks.
- Nov. 2018: Congrats to Madison Bangs - awarded $1,100 from Center for Undergraduate Research (CUGR) to study the avian microbiome associated with the farm environment
- Nov. 2018: Shea and Kamath awarded $12,000 from MOHF to identify patterns of LPDV infection in wild turkeys in Maine and explore health impacts such as susceptibility to co-infection
- Nov. 2018: Check out two stories in the November edition of the UMaine Research - IMPACT newsletter, featuring grad student, Jimmy Elliott, and our work on tick-borne disease in moose!
- 11/3/2018: Pauline and Jimmy give talks for the One Health day event, "One Health Catalyst: Intersections and Connections" at the University of New England.
SUMMER 2018
- August 2018: Kamath, with co-PIs Wendy Turner (U-Albany) and Henriette van Heerden (U of Pretoria, RSA), is awarded an NSF-EEID grant to study the evolutionary ecology of anthrax two endemic systems of southern Africa.
SPRING 2018
- May 2018: Congrats to Jaime Boulos (AVS capstone student), who has been granted admission to the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. We wish her success in her future studies and career!
- Apr. 2018: Congrats to Stephanie Shea for receiving a Dean of Graduate School Undergraduate Mentor Award, at the UMaine Student Symposium!
- Apr. 2018: Stephanie Shea, Jaime Boulos, and Carly Dickson all presented posters at the UMaine Student Symposium on April 19th (Cross Insurance Center, Bangor). Shea and Boulos presented on LPDV in wild turkeys, and Dickson presented preliminary work on a study examining tick-borne pathogens in moose.
- Apr. 2018: Stephanie Shea and Olivia Choi both received grants from the UMaine Graduate Student Government!
- Feb. 2018: Pauline gives UMaine's Wildlife, Fisheries and Conservation Biology Departmental Seminar
FALL 2017
- Dec. 2017: Congratulations to Jaime Boulos for receiving a J. Franklin Witter Undergraduate Award for her capstone project on Lymphoproliferative disease viral strain diversity in Wild Turkeys!