Estelle Venter

Estelle Venter obtained a BSc degree with majors Microbiology and Biochemistry with distinction. She obtained her MSc degree in Microbiology (Virology, specifically on Rift Valley fever (RVF) virus. She then commences lecturing on microbiology and assisting in a diagnostic virology laboratory. She completed her PhD entitled ‘The development of a group-specific diagnostic probe for the detection of the 24 serotypes for bluetongue virus (BTV)’ in 1993. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 1997 and Professor in 2013. She obtained a Y (young researcher) research rating at the South African Research Foundation in 1998, C2 (established researcher) in 2012 - 2017 and 2018 - 2023.

Research

Her main research focus is on arboviral diseases specifically lumpy skin disease (LSD), RVF and bluetongue (BT). Other research interests include orbiviruses e.g. AHSV and Palyamviruses and the Simbu and Flavi group of viruses. She has obtained research funds e.g. from THRIP for FMD, NRF for both BT and LSD, BBSRC/CIDLID and the EU (DEFEND) for LSD and TIA for BT. She had supervised/co-supervised a total of 52 postgraduate students that obtained their degrees. She has been an external examiner for 9 Masters and 2 PhD students and an internal examiner for 6 MSc and 2 PhD students and an Advisor Mentor at JCU for 3 PhD students. She has 102 published research articles, all in accredited journals and 4 chapters in books with a current h-index of 30. She has refereed 94 manuscripts, of which 50 the past five years, i.e. for journals including the Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research, Theriogenology, Medical and Veterinary Entomology, Veterinary Microbiology, African Journal of Biotechnology, BioMed Central (BMC) Veterinary Research, Comparative Immunology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, the Journal of the South African Veterinary Association, Vaccine, Epidemiology and Infection, PLoS Pathogens, Viruses and Transboundary and Emerging Diseases Journal. She was a referee for 18 Grant proposals of the Nation Research Foundation, South Africa, assisted in the rating process of 14 scientists and review proposals for promotion.

Collaboration with researchers nationally and internationally, the latter which Dr W Wilson, Wyoming USA (2000 – 2018), (currently employed by Kansas University and collaborating on RVF and training of students) and Prof J MacLachlan from UC Davis, USA (2008 - 2010) on BTV. She was the co-promoter of a PhD student (LSDV) with promoter Prof Collenbrander from Utrecht University (2007) and has collaborated with Dr P Mellor (co-supervisor) from Pirbright, UK as supervisor of an MSc student (BTV Culicoides work) and a PhD student (2010). She was a co-promoter of four PhD students at international universities, Utrecht University (2, 2007, 2020), in Oslo, Norway in 2014 and Helsinki, Finland (2015).

She assists in the writing of several research grants; a Wellcome Trust Grant (in 2004) on AHSV with Dr J Wood from the UK, not successful, 2010 from the NRF/Belgium collaboration on the overwintering of Culicoides midges, not successful. She was the co-applicant of a successful research grant to CIDLID (DFID/BBSCR) on LSDV (2009) and collaborated with Dr E Tuppurainen, Dr C Ouro and Prof P Mellor from Pirbright, UK from 2010 to 2013 in this regard. In 2016, she has co-applied for a Horizon2020 grant with Dr Pip Beard from the UK, not successful (2016) but successful in 2017, and to the Morris Animal Foundation on flaviviruses in horses, not successful. In South Africa, she has obtained research funds from the University of Pretoria: 2 grants in 2013, 1 in 2014 and 1 in 2015. She also obtained research funds from the Technology Innovation Agency (2013-2017) for research on BT and collaborating with Dr P van Rijn, the Netherlands, in this regard. Drs M Madder, Jan van den Abbeele and D Geysen from the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium are collaborators in presenting online courses and research. She was invited to a Gates Foundation sponsored conference on the improvement of capripoxvirus vaccines (2015). She has acted as a technical expert for the IAEA visiting laboratories in Zimbabwe and Entebbe, Uganda and as a technical expert for SANAS in Zimbabwe and the University of Cape Town’s Vaccine Research Laboratory.

She moved to Australia in 2017 and currently working at James Cook University as Professor of Veterinary Education.