Bristol Veterinary School student Tirion Cobby recently had her dissertation thesis published in the peer-reviewed journal Zoonoses and Public Health, Risk of rabies reintroduction into the European Union as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian war: A quantitative disease risk analysis. We caught up with Tirion to celebrate her achievement, uncover the inspiration for her research, learn about her time at the University of Bristol and ask about her plans for the future.
Starting at Bristol
Tirion first came to the University in Bristol in 2016. She chose Bristol because it was a Russell Group university, the location appealed to her and she also felt it had a friendly atmosphere.
Tirion was actually the first generation in her family to attend university, something which has become a bit of a running joke in her household:
“I quote my dad: ‘we could never get into university and Tirion can’t get out of it’.”
As a student at Bristol Veterinary School, Tirion’s initial plan was to become a practicing vet at the end of the course. In her second year, Tirion realised she was interested in research. As a result, she took a year out after her third year to intercalate in zoology and received a BSc. Tirion gave her thoughts on intercalation:
“I hadn’t planned to intercalate when I joined the vet course. As a result of this, I made my decision really late after receiving some great advice: if you’re considering doing it, you should just go for it. Studying the zoology course was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. It led me to where I am now.”
Once Tirion completed her intercalation year, she realised she had a passion for research. She elected to undertake a research project in the final year of the veterinary science course and it was this, alongside some advice from Professor Tim Parkin and her husband, telling her to do what she loved, that encouraged her to take the MSc in Global Wildlife Health and Conservation.
Life as a Global Wildlife Health and Conservation student
As someone who was interested in pursuing a career in research, the 3-month project offered by the Global Wildlife Health and Conservation Programme was a real selling point for Tirion. She was also very interested in each of the course units, which is why she chose to take the taught masters over a research masters. Tirion reflected on her time as an MSc student:
“I loved everything about the course and it really was one of the best years of my life! We were so lucky and had an incredible, supportive and collaborative cohort and we were really encouraged to help each other to succeed.”
Tirion explained how the seven course units provided a very broad and varied curriculum and covered many of the skills required to work as a wildlife professional. This not only included the course content but also the way in which the students were assessed:
“A lot of the assessments prepared you for the real world such as doing a grant application and a phase 1 habitat survey. We also delivered a conference presentation and role played a response planning meeting for a mass wildlife casualty event.”
Whilst Tirion had felt prepared for what would be covered in the course, one thing she hadn’t anticipated was the amount of practical experience offered to the students. During her time as a student, Tirion visited the Bristol Zoo Project to complete the research skills unit and create a mini project. She also spent time at WWT Slimbridge. In addition, Tirion had the opportunity to hear from lots of wildlife experts who delivered lectures at Bristol:
“I think what I enjoyed the most was hearing about the work that’s currently going on and seeing how passionate the experts are about their areas of expertise.”
The world of research
When it came to the 3-month research project, Tirion looked back on her time in zoology to come up with a concept. She had looked into why rabies had been eradicated in Western Europe and how an oral vaccination had been successful in eliminating the disease in the EU. This, however, is not the case in all parts of the world and rabies still exists in the canine population in Eastern Europe. It was this that led Tirion to her research project:
“I was thinking about basing my project on rabies and when I discovered that, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission had eased the importation requirements for the pets of Ukrainian refugees (so that they could quickly get out of Ukraine), I wanted to explore this further. I was keen to see if this might affect the risk of rabies entry to the EU.”
Tirion used a mathematical model approach for her project. This allowed her to assess the risk of rabies entry from the EU Pet Travel Scheme (EU PETS) as well as the relaxed rules (derogation) under various levels of compliance. Tirion explained her findings:
“When pet owners complied 100% with the derogation rules, the annual risk of rabies introduction was significantly lower than under the previous EU PETS rules. This is the opposite of what we were expecting and is, therefore, perhaps the most important and surprising result. Unsurprisingly, when we modelled reduced compliance to the rules (not undertaking vaccination, blood testing or border check) the risk increased for both schemes, with a 74-fold increase in risk in the derogation scheme and a 10-fold increase under EU PETS. However, overall, reduced compliance meant the risk remained at least as low under the derogation scheme as it had been under EU PETS and was likely even lower. This may be explained by a 4 month home isolation period in the derogation scheme rather than a 3 month waiting period in the country of origin in the original EU PETS where pets may come into contact with rabid animals.”
Overcoming obstacles
Despite an incredible end result, the route to success for Tirion wasn’t always smooth. She had to overcome periods of self-doubt during the project and also had to learn how disease risk analysis is performed, something she hadn’t done previously:
“I wanted to do a quantitative disease risk analysis which involved stochastic modelling, something I’d never done before. I had to learn a lot of maths such as probability distributions and Monte Carlo simulation and also had to find software that could do this work.”
Another difficult aspect of the project for Tirion was creating a transmission pathway (a model which shows all possible routes of entry of a disease into a country) for the derogation scheme. Little information was provided by governments and it was often stated that guidance was made on a case-by-case basis. Tirion also faced some personal challenges during her time as a student:
“One of the big stresses throughout the project was planning for my wedding which took place one month after finishing the MSc! Balancing everything was a bit crazy but I am fortunate to have such supportive people around me. I really wouldn’t have been able to do it all without them.”
Becoming a published author
Becoming a published author is undoubtedly a massive achievement. Tirion explains the mix of emotions she felt from first submitting her MSc dissertation thesis to finally having her work published:
“The first thing I felt was massive relief that I had managed to submit. There were many hurdles and periods of self-doubt throughout so I was just happy to have finished. It was only later that I realised completing my paper was a real accomplishment. When I received great feedback and was encouraged to publish the work later on, I was absolutely over the moon!”
Tirion’s project, alongside her other work on the MSc course, was so well-received that she was actually awarded the class prize for the highest performing student on the course. Whilst this was Tirion’s project, she really felt that becoming a published author was a team effort thanks to the lecturers at Bristol Veterinary School:
“I am so grateful to Professor Mark Eisler, Dr Nicola Rooney and Dr Irene Bueno Padilla for encouraging me to publish the work as it isn’t something I thought I would do, and without their input I probably wouldn’t have. They have been incredibly supportive throughout, especially Mark who’s had to answer all of my queries and has been really patient with me through the whole process!”
Next steps
Tirion is currently working at Bristol University as a research assistant. She is extremely passionate about research and wants to continue in this space, hopefully in the form of a PhD:
“I am hoping to apply for a PhD next year in an area related to epidemiology/ One Health as I find this fascinating. I really enjoy doing work that can have a real impact.”
Want to join University of Bristol?
Whether you are looking to start your journey as an undergraduate student, or have had a career for several years and are looking to pursue a new career path, Bristol Veterinary School will welcome you with open arms.
Visit our website to find out more about our undergraduate Veterinary Science and Veterinary Nursing courses as well as our postgraduate Global Wildlife Health and Conservation programme:
Undergraduate | Bristol Veterinary School | University of Bristol
MSc Global Wildlife Health and Conservation | Study at Bristol | University of Bristol