Julien KINCAID-SMITH joined us on 1 November 2023. His research project aims to develop an integrative “One Health” approach to schistosomiasis, a disease recently recognised as zoonotic, in order to achieve several objectives:

1. to determine, at a local scale, the spatiotemporal dynamics of schistosome infection at the human-animal-environment interface and gene flow between parasite species,
2. to identify the ecological, evolutionary and social factors associated with the zoonotic transmission of schistosomes,
3. to assess whether mass treatment of human populations has implications in terms of changes in parasite hosts and parasite sensitivity to the drug.

Julien will initially carry out his project in Senegal, at the study sites he worked on during his postdoctoral research at the CBGP.