Rate My Professor Janelle Wierenga

Dr. Janelle Wierenga is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Health Sciences, at the University of Otago, where she is based in the Geoghegan Lab. She also serves as Head of Wildlife at the Otago Peninsula Eco Restoration Alliance. Wierenga holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and earned her PhD in Veterinary Sciences from Massey University in 2022. Her expertise in veterinary medicine and molecular virology drives her contributions to understanding and mitigating infectious diseases in New Zealand's endangered wildlife.

Wierenga's research employs metagenomics, population genomics, virome analysis, and next-generation sequencing to investigate pathogens in native species. She co-led a nationwide collaboration identifying a novel gyrovirus as the cause of fatal respiratory disease in yellow-eyed penguin (hoiho, Megadyptes antipodes) chicks, which led to over 90% mortality in affected nests during 2020-2021; this 2023 Virology publication enabled development of a PCR diagnostic test. In 2025, she contributed to genomic research uncovering three hoiho subspecies and immune-related genes potentially increasing northern population susceptibility to respiratory issues. Her publications include 'Avian Influenza Virus Surveillance Across New Zealand and Its Subantarctic Islands Detects H1N9 in Migratory Shorebirds, but Not 2.3.4.4b HPAI H5N1' (2025), 'Evidence for a Role of Extraintestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis and Streptococcus gallolyticus in the Aetiology of Exudative Cloacitis in the Critically Endangered Kākāpō' (2025), 'Viromes of Antarctic Fish Resemble the Diversity Found at Lower Latitudes' (2024), and 'Total Infectome Investigation of Diphtheritic Stomatitis in Yellow-Eyed Penguins Reveals a Novel and Abundant Megrivirus' (2023). Through partnerships with the Department of Conservation, Ministry for Primary Industries, and wildlife organizations, her work advances conservation. She presented on hoiho disease in the University of Otago Department of Zoology seminar series in 2024.