At the Spatial Epidemiology Lab (SpELL), we study the effect of spatial factors on the emergence, spread, persistence and evolution of diseases and invasive species. The understanding of key spatial factors, such as climatic, ecological or anthropogenic variables, and their integration into spatial and/or molecular approaches is used to predict the geographical distribution of risk and the environmental factors impacting the dispersal history and dynamic of pathogen spreads, which can contribute to better targetted prevention, surveillance and control measures. We also work toward the development, improvement and application of methods in spatial modelling of biological invasions, ecological niche modelling for risk mapping, and landscape phylogeography. The SpELL is also involved in the assembly of large-scale data sets on farm animals and in studies dedicated to the conservation of insect pollinators.
On September 16 2026 by Simon Dellicour
Our new study on the dynamics and drivers of the 2024-2025 chikungunya virus epidemic on Réunion Island has been published in PNAS. Réunion Island experienced a massive chikungunya virus epidemic in 2024-2025, with >54,000 confirmed cases. This is the second major chikungunya epidemic on the island, following the first one that peaked 20 years ago. It has been asserted that this new outbreak finds its origin in a single introduction event into the island, offering an opportunity to exploit viral genomic data to understand the epidemiological and dispersal dynamics of the introduced transmission chain. Read more...
On September 02 2026 by Bastien De Tandt & Simon Dellicour
Our new study on the declines in European bumblebee habitat suitability attributable to climate change has been published in Nature Climate Change. Climate change is increasingly implicated in the decline of insect pollinator populations, which provide critical ecosystem services. Isolating its contribution from other co-occurring environmental stresses remains challenging yet crucial for informing conservation strategies and mitigating biodiversity losses. In this new study, we isolated the role of climate change by comparing predictions of areas ecologically suitable for European bumblebee species from 1901 to 2019 under factual simulations to predictions under counterfactual climatic conditions where long-term climatic trends were removed. Read more...
On April 16 2026 by Simon Dellicour
In March 2024, Brazil reported an unprecedented Oropouche fever outbreak, driven by the emergence of a novel reassortant lineage of the Oropouche virus expanding beyond the Amazon Basin. Oropouche virus (OROV) is an arthropod-borne virus first identified in 1955 in Oropouche, a village in Trinidad and Tobago. OROV typically causes a febrile illness with symptoms such as fever, headache, myalgia, arthralgia, photophobia, nausea, vomiting, and dizziness. In some cases, the illness can progress to severe neurological complications, including meningo-encephalitis. Read more...
Spatially-explicit phylogeographic analyses can be used to reconstruct the dispersal history of viral lineages. Over the last years, we started exploiting such phylogeographic reconstructions to investigate the impact on environmental factors on the dispersal dynamic of viral lineages (such as their diffusion velocity, dispersal position, and dispersal frequency). Furthermore, we also aim to use phylogeographic reconstruction to assess hypothetical intervention strategies in the context of viral epidemics.
See moreWe further develop and applies methodologies to conduct ecological niche modelling for the risk mapping of infectious diseases. Our research initially focused on avian influenza, with a particular emphasis on the role of agro-ecological factors on its emergence and persistence, but we have then also worked on other important livestock diseases such as bluetongue, bovine tuberculosis, and Nipah virus infections. More recently, we have conducted studies dedicated to the impact of climate and land-use changes on the distribution of pathogens of OneHealth importance such as the Lassa virus in Africa and the West Nile virus in Europe.
See moreInvading organisms spreading though an heterogeneous landscape are difficult to study using conventional statistical models. We aim to review existing methods, to develop new methodologies to study those type of data, and to compare all methods in their capacity to detect the influence of landscape heterogeneity on the pattern of spread. In particular, we have developed an analytical framework that allows testing the impact of continuous environmental layer as well as barriers on a wavefront progression.
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