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
Bulweria "b" sequence analysis has proven them to be closely related to the shearwaters in the genus "Puffinus" and especially the "Procellaria" petrels. Bulweria Bulweria is a genus of seabirds in the family Procellariidae named after English naturalist James Bulwer. The genus has two extant species, Bulwer's petrel ("B. bulwerii") and Jouanin's petrel ("B. fallax"). A third species, the Olson's petrel ("Bulweria bifax"), became extinct in the early 16th century; it is known only from skeletal remains. Bulwer's Petrel ranges in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, whereas Joaunin's Petrel is confined to the northwestern Indian Ocean. Olson's Petrel is known