Dr. Antoine Filion

E-mail: afilion90@gmail.com
I am an ecologist working at the interface of community and landscape ecology. Specifically, I am passionate about investigating human impacts on wild multi-species systems using a field and remote sampling approach combined in an advanced statistical framework. The goal of my project is to understand the impact of avian hosts phylogenetic diversity and anthropogenic drivers on avian malaria lineages diversity.

Publications

Bennet J, Niebuhr CN, Lagrue C, Middlemiss KL, Webster T, Filion, A. Accepted. New insights into avian malaria infections in New Zealand seabirds. Parasitology Research.
Sundaram M, Dorado M, Akaribo B, Filion A, Han BA, Gottdenker N, Schmidt JP, Drake J, Stephens PR. In press. Frugivory, Ficus distribution, and Ebolavirus spillover in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ecography
Filion A, Webster T, Poulin R, Godfrey SS (2023) Interannual patterns of avian diseases in wild New Zealand avifauna near conservation areas. Austral Ecology 8: 1413-1425
Poulin R, Presswell B, Filion A, Salloum PM, Chai X, Bennet J, de Angeli Dutra D (2023) Battle of the sexes: analysis of sex bias in host use and reporting practices in parasitological experiments. International Journal for Parasitology 53, 381-389
Sundaram M*, Filion A*, Akaribo B, Stephens PR (2023) Footprint of war: integrating armed conflicts in disease ecology. Trends in Parasitology 39:238-241
Eriksson A, Filion A, Labruna MB, Muñoz-Leal S, Poulin R, Fischer E, Graciolli G (2023) Effects of forest loss and fragmentation on bat-ectoparasite interactions. Parasitology research 122, 1391-1402
Filion A, Sundaram M, Stephens PR (2023) Preliminary investigation of Schmalhausen’s law in a directly transmitted pathogen outbreak system. Viruses 15:310
French RK, Filion A, Niebuhr CN, Holmes EC (2022) Metatranscriptomic comparison of viromes in endemic and introduced passerines in New Zealand. Viruses 14: 1364
Doherty JF, Filion A, Poulin R (2022) Infection patterns and new definitive host records for New Zealand gordiid hairworms (phylum Nematomorpha). Parasitology international 90: 102598
Filion A, Doherty JF, Poulin R and Godfrey SS (2022) Building a comprehensive phylogenetic framework in disease ecology. Trends in Parasitology 36: 424-427
Filion A, Deschamps L, Niebuhr CN, Poulin R (2022) Anthropogenic changes promote disease risk in New Zealand avifauna. PLoS One 17, e0265568
Doherty JF, Milotic M, Filion A, Eriksson A (2022) Environmental stability and the reproductive strategies of parasites. Parasitology 149: 534-541
Doherty JF, Chai X, Cope LE, De Angeli Dutra D, Milotic M, Ni S, Park E, Filion A (2021) The rise of big data in disease ecology. Trends in Parasitology 37: 1034-1037
Erastova D, Galbraith JA, Cain KA, van Heezik Y, Filion A and Stanley MC (2021) Sugar water feeding practices define bird species composition in urban backyards. Journal of Urban Ecology 7: 1-9
Poulin R, Filion A (2021) Evolution of social behaviour in an infectious world: comparative analysis of social network structure versus parasite richness. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 75: 105
Doherty JF *, Filion A*, Bennet J, Raj Bhattarai U, Chai X, de Angeli Dutra D, Donlon E, Jorge F, Milotic M, Park E, Sabadel A, Thomas L, Poulin R (2021) The people versus science: can passively crowdsourced internet data shed light on host-parasite interactions? Parasitology 148: 1313–1319
De Angeli Dutra, Martin-Braga E, Fecchio A, Filion A, Poulin R (2021) Migrant birds disperse haemosporidian parasites and affect their transmission in avian communities. Oikos 130; 979-988
Poulin R*, Bennet J*, Filion A*, Raj Bhattarai U, Chai X, de Angeli Dutra D, Donlon E, Doherty JF, Jorge F, Milotic M, Park E, Sabadel A, Thomas L (2021) iParasitology: Mining the internet to test parasitological hypotheses. Trends in Parasitology 37: 267-272
Rainville V, Filion A, Lussier I, Pépino M, Magnan P (2021) Does ecological release from distantly related species affect phenotypic divergence in brook charr? Oecologia 195:77–92
Filion A,Eriksson A, Jorge F, Niebuhr C, Poulin R (2020) Large-scale disease patterns explained by climatic seasonality and host traits. Oecologia 194: 723-733
Poulin R, Bennet J, de Angeli Dutra D, Doherty JF, Filion A, Park E, Ruehle B (2020) Evolutionary signature of ancient parasite pressures, or the ghost of parasitism past. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 8: 1-7
Filion A, Rainville V, Pépino M, Bertolo A, Magnan P (2019) Alternative hosts identity has a stronger effect than abiotic factors on trematode transmission in brook charr. Oecologia 190: 879-889
Selbach C, Jorge F, Dowle E, Bennett J, Chai X, Doherty J, Eriksson A, Filion A, Hay E, Herbison R, Lindner J, Park E, Presswell B, Ruehle B, Sobrinho PM, Wainwright E, Poulin R (2019) Parasitological research in the molecular age. Parasitology 146: 1361-1370
Filion A, Lagrue C, Presswell B, Poulin R (2017) Behavioural modification of personality traits: testing the effect of a trematode on nymphs of the red damselfly Xanthocnemis zealandica. Parasitology research 116: 1773-1779 

Education

2022 PhD Disease Ecology, University of Otago, New Zealand 
2017 MSc Freshwater Ecology, UQTR, Quebec, Canada 
2015 BSc (honours), UQTR, Quebec, Canada

Awards

2022 IsoEcol funds for invited plenary speaker 
2022 New Zealand Department of Conservation grant 
2021 Manaaki Whenua-Landcare research funds 
2019 Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust research funds 
2018 University of Otago doctoral scholarship 
2017 Excellence in master’s degree grant 
2015 NSERC-CREATE grant for graduate study 
2015 NSERC-CREATE grant for honours project