CENTER EVENTS 

JULY 7, 2025 @ 10am PDT [1pm EDT]

Influenza at the Land-Sea Interface: A One Health Perspective from the Coasts of Peru - Ricardo Castillo Neyra, DVM PhD MSPH​ 

The 2022 outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Peru has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of marine birds and poultry, and confirmed spillover events into marine mammal populations, highlighting the fragile balance of coastal ecosystems and the increasing threat of cross-species transmission. Concurrently, rapid economic development in coastal Peru—driven by the expansion of agriculture, poultry production, and mining—has intensified human–animal–environment interactions. The close proximity of industrial and small-scale poultry farms and mines to protected natural reserves and marine ecosystems creates conditions ripe for pathogen emergence and amplification. These anthropogenic pressures are compounded by limited implementation of integrated surveillance systems and fragmented One Health governance frameworks. This presentation will explore the current landscape of zoonotic influenza risk along the Peruvian coast through a One Health lens. Please register HERE.

 Ricardo Castillo Neyra, DVM PhD MSPH,  is an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Scientific Director of the Zoonotic Diseases Research Center, a collaborative research consortium between multiple US-based and international institutions employing over 30 staff. Applying a One Health approach, Dr. Castillo has researched human cysticercosis in  South America's tropical coast, echinococcosis in the Andean mountains, and urban zoonoses such as dog-mediated rabies and urban Chagas  disease. In the US, he has studied antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infections of animal origin in urban and rural communities. Recently, his  research focuses on avian influenza, exploring how human and animal interactions, and social, political, and ecological dynamics drive outbreaks. He holds a PhD in infectious disease epidemiology and an MSPH in international health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health that were supported by a Fulbright Scholarship. Dr. Castillo is also the PI of a NIH-funded training grant to train Latin American scientists on the control of zoonotic tropical diseases.