QFIG Symposium

Registration portal now open!

Abstract portal now open!

You are invited to submit abstracts for oral or poster presentations

Link to ticketing and abstract portal:

https://qfig.eventsair.com/q-fever-symposium

Current Flyer (Click here) (PDF, 350.4 KB)

Current Programme (Click here) (PDF, 1 MB)

Current Prospectus (Click here) (PDF, 1.3 MB)

Information including speakers will appear on this page soon.

Exciting news!

In June, Australia will host a 2 day (Saturday and Sunday) Symposium dedicated entirely to Q fever.

Speakers will be from Australia, France, Spain, Germany, Netherlands and USA.

Topics will include aspects of Q fever in humans and animals, including industrial impacts and the future of Q fever management.

Ticketing and call for abstracts will commence in late February or early March.

Speakers

This list will be updated frequently as Bios get submitted

Arístides de Alarcón González (Spain)

Dr Alarcón is a specialist in Infectious Diseases, with a special interest in cardiovascular infections. Member of the group for the support for the management of endocarditis in Spain, he has made outstanding research in the field of infective endocarditis and cardiac electrostimulation device infections. He is the author of several publications on Coxiella burnettii infections, and coordinates a Spanish research group in this field.

Topic: Q fever endocarditis

STEPHEN R. GRAVES

Stephen R. Graves is a medical microbiologist and Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA). He is a former Chair of the RCPA Faculty of Science.

Almost 30 years ago he established the Australian Rickettsial Reference Laboratory (ARRL) as a boutique, not-for-profit, microbiology diagnostic and research laboratory, located at University Hospital Geelong, Victoria. He is the Approved Pathology Provider (APP) for this laboratory which specializes in diagnosing infections transmitted by ectoparasites such as ticks, lice, fleas and mites. In Australia these infections are mainly rickettsial and Q Fever (Coxiella burnetii). He was involved in the discovery of Flinders Island Spotted Fever (Rickettsia honei) and has had a new rickettsia, found in the kangaroo tick (Amblyomma triguttatum), named after him (Rickettsia gravesii). He is involved in the development of new vaccines against Q Fever, for use in goats and humans.

Topic: History of Q fever

Tarka Raj Bhatta

Post doctoral Fellow

Australian Rickettsial Reference Laboratory (ARRL), Barwon Health, University Hospital Geelong, Victoria, 3220

Supervisors: Prof Stephen Graves and Prof John Stenos

Tarka has a BSc in Microbiology and an MSc in Biotechnology from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He has a joint PhD degree from Deakin University (based at Geelong Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases (GCEID) now CIIDIR) and University of Copenhagen in Denmark and completed his joint PhD in Jan 2022. Then he moved to Denmark where he was in a postdoctoral position in Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Copenhagen till May 2023. Then he migrated back to Australia and joined ARRL as the postdoctoral Fellow to work on Genomics of Coxiella burnetii using whole genome sequencing. He is also working with the team for the development of human Q fever vaccine. Recently, he has started workind to develop metagenomic platform for the diagnostic purpose.

Topic: Unraveling the Genomic Diversity of Coxiella burnetii strains from Australian Patients using Whole Genome Sequencing

Coxiella burnetii (Cb), the causative agent of Q fever, is a common human infection in Australia, particularly in the regional Queensland and New South Wales (NSW). Though Cb was first recognised in Australia, there is little information about the diversity of the Cb strains due to the lack of whole genome sequencing data. In this study we have sequenced 10 complete genomes of Cb and then studied the molecular diversity of these Cb strains.

Clare Nourse

Clare Nourse is a Paediatric Infection Specialist at Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane and is is Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Queensland. Her particular interests are in HIV and TB infection in children, congenital syphilis and Q fever as well as infection in resource limited countries, particularly in Timor-Leste

Topics: Q fever osteomyelitis in children.Q fever in pregnancy and neonates.

Eilish Moore

Eilish Moore is a junior medical officer (at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney. She qualified in medicine from the University of Wollongong in 2024 and completed a large portion of her clinical placements in the Northern Rivers in Lismore, Ballina and Byron Bay Hospitals. Infectious diseases is one of Eilish’s areas of interest, and she is excited to be back up in the Northern Rivers where she was based while she undertook her Q fever research.

Topic: Q fever in pregnancy and neonates.

Ben Bauer (Germany)

Dr. Ben Bauer is a veterinarian who graduated from Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany. While studying abroad, he obtained a Postgraduate Diploma at Massey University in New Zealand. Ben has been working on Coxiella burnetii for over 10 years. He began his career at the Bavarian Animal Health Service, managing Coxiella-positive sheep flocks by introducing a new vaccination schedule to establish herd immunity. Later, he moved to the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, to focus on the clinical and epidemiological aspects of C. burnetii in small ruminants within an interdisciplinary research program for Q fever (www.q-gaps.de). During that time, he completed his Habilitation thesis, "Epidemiology and Control of Coxiella burnetii in Small Ruminants – A One Health Approach”. Recently, Ben has joined the Institute of Immunology at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (Germany), working on a new Coxiella vaccine candidate within the framework of the COX-SAVE consortium (www.cox-save.de). In addition to his research activities, he is an active board member of the European College of Small Ruminant Health Management and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German One Health Platform.

Q Fever Vaccines: A Veterinary Perspective

Various approaches have been explored in veterinary science to develop a vaccine against Coxiella burnetii and to implement vaccination programs in ruminant herds. The presentation will cover the past, present, and future prospects of Coxiella vaccines for ruminants.

Hayley Newton

Professor Hayley Newton is a cellular microbiologist with a keen interest in understanding the ways in which intracellular bacterial pathogens can manipulate their human host cells. She has worked with a range of bacterial pathogens, but her main research impact has come from studies into the zoonotic pathogen Coxiella burnetii. As a pathogen of both humans and animals, C. burnetii, remains an important example of the need for a one health approach for research into human health and disease.

After completing her PhD, studying pathogenesis of Legionella pneumophila at Monash University, Hayley was awarded a NHMRC Training Fellowship to undertake postdoctoral research at Yale University. Here she applied pioneering techniques to genetically manipulate C. burnetii and discovered key virulence factors of this poorly understood human pathogen. This research has led to a significant shift in our understanding of this mysterious intracellular pathogen. Hayley moved to the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, in 2013 where she established her independent research program and a substantial teaching portfolio. In 2022, Hayley was recruited to the Infection Program, Department of Microbiology and Biomedicine Discovery Institute, at Monash University.

Topic: genomics of Q fever

Alana Jenkins

Alana Jenkins is a microbiology scientist at Pathology Queensland.

A very experienced scientist in both public and private pathology both in Australia and overseas. In recent years I Have developed a keen interest in Q fever and its diagnosis and working with our clinicians to further this. I am energised by extracurricular projects including syphilis prevalence testing and this project to improve diagnosis of acute Q fever.

Topic: laboratory stewardship to enhance acute Q fever detection

Li Jun Thean

Dr Li Jun Thean is a joint microbiology and paediatric infectious diseases trainee. She is currently a microbiology registrar at Sullivan and Nicolaides Pathology and will be presenting her work on Q fever from her former appointment at Pathology Queensland. She is an Honorary Research Fellow with the Tropical Diseases Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research institute and holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne.

Title + synopsis: Improving acute Q fever diagnosis through the integration of serum PCR into the laboratory diagnostic algorithm. Retrospective and prospective studies comparing blood parameters associated with a detected C. burnetii PCR towards the diagnosis of acute Q fever.

Simon Firestone and Ayesha Salgadu

Simon is an Associate Professor in Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health in the Melbourne Veterinary School. He teaches epidemiology into the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, One Health breadth subjects and the Science degree. His research focuses on modelling infectious disease outbreaks, Bayesian diagnostic test validation, zoonoses surveillance, outbreak investigation and control, with projects on COVID-19, Q fever, foot-and-mouth disease, African swine fever, Mycoplasma bovis, foodborne disease, influenzas and arboviruses.

Ayesha is a postdoctoral research associate in the Melbourne Veterinary School. Her research includes diagnostic test validation studies, disease risk assessments and modelling of infectious diseases in livestock, wildlife and human populations. She is currently the main modeller and analyst in a CSL-funded study investigating potential vaccination requirements for Q fever outbreak scenarios in Australia.

This presentation will describe modelling being undertaken to describe realistic scenarios for Q fever outbreaks in Australia and model their potential extent, impacts, populations at risk and the optimal number of vaccinations required. The presentation will present the modelling approach and assumptions, and lead in to a session of expert consultation of interested QFIG members to provide face validation (‘the pub test’) for the model and to commence the process of expert elicitation for key areas of uncertainty.

Élodie Rousset (France)

Dr. Élodie Rousset leads the French National Reference Laboratory (NRL) for Q fever at ANSES, Sophia Antipolis. She has been an expert for the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) since 2013, working in collaboration with PIWET, Poland, since 2021. Her work focuses on developing, harmonizing, and evaluating reliable diagnostic methods (standardization, performance) to optimize their use in research, diagnosis, and surveillance. She collaborates closely with national and European stakeholders to identify scientific gaps and improve methodologies for a better understanding of Q fever epidemiology and transmission dynamics.

Title: Diagnostic tools available for ruminants, their known performances and expected developments

Summary: This presentation will provide an overview of the diagnostic tools available for Q fever in ruminants, their validated performances, and ongoing efforts to improve and harmonize methods through collaborative initiatives in France and Europe. It will also highlight current challenges, including methodological biases, gaps in surveillance strategies, and the importance of adapting diagnostic approaches to different socio-epidemiological contexts to ensure reliable data for epidemiological monitoring and public health decision-making.

Confirmed speakers awaiting bios:

Pierre Edouard Fournier (France)

Jenny Robson (QLD)

Katrina Bosward (NSW)

Ricardo Magalhaes (QLD)

Debra Lee (QLD)

Robert Norton (QLD)

Lucinda Taege (QLD)

Penny Hutchinson (QLD)

Also, there are several (other) speakers to confirm (mainly from Northern Hemisphere).