RESCHEDULED for October 30 at 1pm UTC, which is 6am Pacific US, 9am Eastern US, 1pm London, 2pm Paris, 3pm Johannesburg, 6:30pm Delhi, 10pm Tokyo, and 12am midnight in Sydney on the 31st!

Since 2021, an unprecedented epizootic of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is under way on a global scale. The outbreak is marked by a loss of seasonality alongside an explosive increase in geographic rang and host species. More than 320 wild bird species have been affected in often devastating outbreaks, causing significant concerns for populations and ecosystems. 

Southwestern Europe serves as a stronghold for several vulture species, including Griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus), whose southwestern European distribution represents approximately 75% of the global population. Due to their ecology, vultures have been considered less likely to be exposed and less susceptible to HPAI. However, abnormal mortality of nestling and adult vultures was detected in France & Spain in spring 2022, and was confirmed to be the result of H5N1 avian influenza. 

Join Dr. Julien Hirschinger to learn about the long-term monitoring of vulture populations in both countries, and the work studying the epidemiology and circulation of HPAI in a previously unaffected species. 

Dr Julien Hirschinger is  a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine with additional expertise in ecology, epidemiology, and molecular biology. His research aims to contribute to wildlife conservation, with a particular focus on the ecology and epidemiology of wildlife diseases and their impacts on population dynamics and ecosystem health. He is currently working as a researcher at the National Veterinary School of Toulouse (VIRAL, IHAP, ENVT).

Individuals who attend the live event for at least 3/4 of its run time will receive a Certificate of Attendance for their records, provided they attend under their own name and email address.

This event will be held in English. Live translated captions in the following languages:

Arabic | Bengali | Cantonese | Chinese (Simplified) | Chinese (Traditional) | Czech | Danish | Dutch | English | Estonian | Finnish | French (Canada) | French (France) | German | Greek | Hebrew | Hindi | Hungarian | Indonesian | Italian | Japanese | Korean | Malay | Norwegian | Persian | Polish | Portuguese (Brazil) | Portuguese (Portugal) | Romanian | Russian | Spanish | Swedish | Tagalog | Tamil | Telugu | Thai | Turkish | Ukrainian | Vietnamese | Welsh

Registration closes on October 29, 2026