Human Life and Parasites in Wildlife—Andrew Thompson—Professor of Parasitology, Murdoch University
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 June 2020
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Andrew Thompson is a Professor of Parasitology at Murdoch University who joins the show to discuss the ins and outs of his research on parasites.
In this episode, you will learn:
- How parasites can change and/or be introduced as a result of human involvement
- How the recreational pursuit of fox hunting and domestication of horses led to an artificial parasitic cycle (hydatid disease) in the UK
- What mechanisms certain parasites have developed to help them survive in their hosts
Thompson's work on parasitic diseases began many years ago, when taking a class on invertebrate zoology. One project in particular struck his interest: the role of the dwarf tapeworm in mice. Since then, his research has gone far beyond tapeworms.
In recent years, the focus has been on parasites of wildlife—particularly those that may have conservation effects. In other words, parasites that normally don't cause much of a problem without the impact of human involvement and man-made domestic cycles.
He gives a number of fascinating examples, and discusses the studies which led to these findings. He discusses the progression of hydatid disease in humans and domestic animals, surgical removal as an intervention, what can be done to prevent it, and much more.
http://www.murdoch.edu.au/Research-capabilities/Research-stories/Andrew-Thompson/
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Transcript
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| 0:33.0 | That is Richard Jacobs. |
| 0:35.0 | Hello, this is Richard Jacobs for the Finding Genius Podcast. |
| 0:41.0 | I have Andrew Thompson. |
| 0:42.0 | He is a professor of |
| 0:43.4 | parasitology at Murdoch University in Australia. He's gotten up at a |
| 0:48.1 | ungodly hour to do this interview, so I appreciate that very much. Andrew, |
| 0:52.3 | thanks for coming. My pleasure. Yeah, tell me about what |
| 0:57.0 | spurred your interest in parasites, you know, a long time ago, whenever you started working with them. |
| 1:04.0 | It was a long time ago. Well, basically my training initially was as a zoologist, |
| 1:08.0 | and I, it came down to basically my teachers and my teacher an invertebrate zoology |
| 1:17.6 | came up with a list of projects that we had to do for our honours in our final year |
| 1:22.3 | and there was one project that |
| 1:24.4 | particularly caught my attention an interest which concerned studying a |
| 1:30.6 | tape worm a very tiny little tape worm in mice. |
... |
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