Shokoofeh Shamsi

Professor Shokoofeh Shamsi

Veterinary Parasitology

Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences

Biography

Professor Shokoofeh Shamsi, has qualifications in veterinary and medical sciences (parasitology), and skills in conventional morphological and molecular parasite identification methods. She is a taxonomist with a huge interest in identifying species, who goes beyond taxonomy to understand parasitism, ecology, evolution, ecosystems and how parasites population changes in response to anthropological and environmental factors. She is currently leading and collaborating on a variety of research projects focussing on health, welfare, behaviour, biosecurity and biology of both wild and farmed, as well as a range of terrestrial and aquatic animals. Recently her research focus has broadened to include the culture of indigenous Australians on the lessons in sustainability.

Examples of research achievements include:

  • Discovering 37 new parasite species;
  • Discovering, characterising and reporting, for the first time, invasive and introduced parasites in Australia;
  • Determining novel natural transmission patterns of parasites affecting critically endangered Australian species
Research
  • Parasitology
  • Transmissible parasites between animals and humans
  • Parasite taxonomy, systematics and diagnosis
  • Cophylogeny among parasites and their hosts
  • Transmission patterns and ecology of parasites
  • Food safety
  • Climate change and parasitism
  • Health of the Murray Darling Basin
  • One health
  • First nations, sustainability and health
Publications
Full publications list on CRO

Recent Publications

  • Shamsi, S. (2025). Aquatic Foodborne Zoonoses. In N. J. Smit & B. Sures (Eds.), Aquatic Parasitology: Ecological and Environmental Concepts and Implications of Marine and Freshwater Parasites (pp. 493-507). Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-83903-0_19
  • Porter, M., Barton, D., Zhu, X., & Shamsi, S. (2025). Morphological and molecular characterization of the trematodes (Digenea: Acanthocolpidae and Cryptogonimidae) of the black-spotted croaker (Protonibea diacanthus) (Teleostei: Sciaenidae) in northern Australia. Parasitology (Cambridge).
  • Birckhead, A., Jenkins, D., Shamsi, S., Malik, R., & Carstens, A. (2024). Intranasal Linguatula serrata (tongue worm) in canids and vulpids can be detected using computed tomography. Veterinary Radiology and Ultrasound. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/vru.13428
  • Shamsi, S., Brown, K., Francis, N., Barton, D. P., & Jenkins, D. J. (2024). First findings of Sarcocystis species in game deer and feral pigs in Australia. International Journal of Food Microbiology, 421, 110780. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2024.110780
  • Freire, R., Michie, M., Rogers, L., & Shamsi, S. (2024). Age-Related Changes in Survival Behaviour in Parasite-Free Hatchery-Reared Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Animals, 14(1315). https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14091315