Dr. Hume Field

Dr Field is an internationally recognized authority on emerging infectious diseases associated with wildlife. He is a veterinary epidemiologist with particular experience in bat-associated EIDs, and in the design and implementation of wildlife surveillance programs. He played a key role in the identification of fruit bats as the natural hosts of Hendra virus in Australia and Nipah virus in Malaysia. He participated in two WHO missions investigating the origins of the SARS outbreak in 2003, and was part of the team that identified bats as the reservoir of a cluster of SARS-like coronaviruses. His current research focus includes risk factors for henipavirus spillover, and investigations of SARS-like coronaviruses in bats. He is employed by the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries in Brisbane, Australia, and is a Visiting Professor of Zoonoses at The University of Malaysia, Sarawak.