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
Buller's shearwater blackish also; the two black areas do not meet at the hand however; the area between them is a rather light grey, under bright light it may appear almost white. With the bird facing upwards, the pattern gives the impression of a broken black "M", with light grey interspersing areas. The underside is bright white; on the head the upperside's grey extends town to eye height and the white cheeks may shine up conspicuously, as in the smaller shearwaters of "Puffinus sensu stricto". The rectrices are blackish and the tail is wedge-shaped; bill and iris are dark. Fledged juveniles already