Pat Nuttall laboratory reagent, a result that was published in "Nature" in 1977. She then worked with ornithologist Chris Perrins trying to identify the virus responsible for puffinosis, a disease that affects the Manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus") sea bird. During this research, Nuttall visited sea-bird colonies and became interested in ticks, arthropods that often infest sea birds as well as other vertebrates, and can act as vectors for disease. In the early 1980s, Nuttall started to study viruses transmitted by ticks, initially focusing on orbiviruses, nairoviruses and thogotoviruses. While performing experiments designed to explore whether "Thogoto virus", an influenza-like virus, can be
Arripis commensal relationship between the Australian salmon and the birds is noted to be especially strong in such species as the white-fronted tern, ("Sterna striata"), fluttering shearwater, ("Puffinus gavia"), and Buller's shearwater, ("Puffinus bulleri"). The baitfish made available by the Australian salmon's herding behaviour may also be important to the reproductive success of winter-nesting birds; the decline of the Australians salmon stocks has evoked concern for these bird species, some of which – such as the fairy tern, ("Sterna nereis") – are endangered Aside from seabirds, the Australian salmon are also important in the diets of cetaceans, such as killer whales