Higher Education, Exclusion and Belonging: Religious Complexity, Coping and Connectedness among International Students During the COVID- 19 Pandemic in Australia

Generations of migrants from Asia since the 1800s have endured challenges in locating their place and belonging in Australia due to systemic racism and discrimination against the cultural and religious 'other '. These persistent issues have intensified during the pandemic, especially towards Chinese communities, including international students. In this paper, we investigate the impact of the pandemic on Chinese, Indian and Russian international students in Australia. It reveals how, throughout the first year of the pandemic, international student, ethnic and religious community organizations implemented multiple and overlapping coping strategies to assist international students in Australia, who had been left vulnerable by a lack of government support and escalating geopolitical tensions in the Asia-Pacific region. By highlighting the religious dimensions of these strategies of connectedness and belonging, it contributes new insights in an under-explored aspect in studies on international students in Australia, pointing the way for further investigation.

Highly divergent white-tailed deer SARS-CoV-2 with potential deer-to-human transmission (preprint)

Wildlife reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 can lead to viral adaptation and spillback from wildlife to humans (Oude Munnink et al., 2021). In North America, there is evidence of spillover of SARS-CoV-2 from humans to white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), but no evidence of transmission from deer to humans (Hale et al., 2021; Kotwa et al., 2022; Kuchipudi et al., 2021). Through a multidisciplinary research collaboration for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in Canadian wildlife, we identified a new and highly divergent lineage of SARS-CoV-2. This lineage has 76 consensus mutations including 37 previously associated with non-human animal hosts, 23 of which were not previously reported in deer. There were also mutational signatures of host adaptation under neutral selection. Phylogenetic analysis revealed an epidemiologically linked human case from the same geographic region and sampling period. Together, our findings represent the first evidence of a highly divergent lineage of SARS-CoV-2 in white-tailed deer and of deer-to-human transmission.

Susceptibility of domestic swine to experimental infection with SARS-CoV-2 (preprint)

SARS-CoV-2, the agent responsible for COVID-19 has been shown to infect a number of species. The role of domestic livestock and the risk associated for humans in close contact remains unknown for many production animals. Determination of the susceptibility of pigs to SARS-CoV-2 is critical towards a One Health approach to manage the potential risk of zoonotic transmission. Here, we show pigs are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 following oronasal inoculation. Viral RNA was detected in group oral fluids and nasal wash from at least two animals while live virus was isolated from a pig. Further, antibodies could be detected in two animals at 11 and 13 days post infection, while oral fluid samples at 6 days post inoculation indicated the presence of secreted antibodies. These data highlight the need for additional livestock assessment to determine the potential role domestic animals may contribute towards the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.