Research Project - DC10

I have a master’s in Animal Nutrition from Canada, and a second master’s in Epidemiology from The Netherlands, where I got my first experience with infectious disease modelling. After graduating, I worked as a junior researcher on a model for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). In May 2025, I moved to Toulouse, France to start a PhD in the VIVACE network under the supervision of Tim Vergne and Jose Gonzales. My project will be to extend and calibrate HPAI transmission models to assess vaccination impacts on transmission, surveillance, and biosecurity, with the goal of minimising both disease impact and vaccine use. Outside of work I like to read, and go for walks in cities and nature.

DC10 — Optimizing poultry vaccination strategies against  highly pathogenic avian influenza to support policy

DC10 turns evidence into strategy by embedding vaccination into a between-farm HPAI transmission model. It accounts for vaccination effects on transmissibility, clinical expression (hence detection), surveillance performance (with DC7), and farmer behaviour/biosecurity uptake (with DC11). The model is calibrated to recent epidemics and vaccine-challenge results.

The project releases open-source code and robust scenario analyses that identify how to minimize epidemic impact while using the fewest doses—clarifying which farm types to vaccinate, at what coverage, and under what epidemiological conditions to achieve the best outcomes.