Rodrigo Hamede

I work at the University of Tasmania through an Australian Research Council, DECRA Fellowship.

I am interested in most areas of disease ecology, particularly in behavioural adaptations and evolutionary processes between host and pathogens as well as using social networks to understand the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases at individual and population level. As an emerging disease, DFTD is a unique host-pathogen system that allows studying the epidemiology, impact and evolutionary dynamics of a species exposed to a new pathogen. Since 2004 I have worked on a number of behavioural, life history, epidemiological and evolutionary problems caused by devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) throughout Tasmania. Using longitudinal data sets from different populations I have assessed the impacts of this disease and developed models to predict the epidemiological outcomes of DFTD across wild devil populations. This information can be used for improving the management of this emerging disease and provides new insights and avenues for the conservation of species affected by emerging wildlife diseases.