USDA-ARS Postdoctoral Research Opportunity in Control of Emerging Avian Metapneumovirus in Poultry

About the role

The Exotic and Emerging Avian Viral Diseases Unit of the USDA‑ARS U.S. National Poultry Research Center in Athens, Georgia is seeking a participant to join a team developing vaccines against avian metapneumovirus (AMPV). New AMPV subtypes have recently been detected for the first time in the U.S. and continue to spread across all poultry sectors. The participant will contribute to the development of AMPV vaccines and vaccination strategies suitable for U.S. poultry production and will help evaluate and develop immunologic assays to predict vaccine efficacy.

Learning Objectives

• Learn about avian metapneumovirus (AMPV), including emerging subtypes, transmission concerns, and impacts across U.S. poultry sectors.
• Gain experience supporting the development of vaccines for AMPV prevention and control in poultry.
• Learn how vaccination strategies are designed and evaluated for practical use in commercial U.S. poultry production.
• Develop familiarity with methods used to assess vaccine safety, immune response, and protective effectiveness.
• Gain experience evaluating and developing immunologic assays that can help predict AMPV vaccine efficacy.
• Learn how laboratory immune‑response data can be used to guide vaccine selection, improvement, and deployment strategies.
• Build collaborative research skills as part of a team researching poultry‑health, virology, immunology, and vaccine‑development challenges.

Qualifications

• Doctoral degree (completed or currently pursued) in a relevant field.
• Eligible disciplines include: Agricultural Sciences, Agronomy and Crop Science, Anatomy, Animal Behavior, Animal Health and Food Safety, Animal Sciences, Basic Biomedical Sciences, Biochemistry, Bioinformatics, Biology (General), Biophysics, Botany, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Comparative Medicine and Laboratory Animal Medicine, Computational Biology, Developmental Biology, Ecology, Ecosystem Ecology, Emergency and Incident Management, Entomology, Environmental Health, Epidemiology, Evolutionary Biology, Food Sciences and Technology, Genetics (including Genome Sciences), Health Physics, Horticulture, Immunology, Industrial Hygiene, Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, Kinesiology and Exercise Physiology, Medicine, Microbiology, Neurosciences, Nursing, Nutritional Sciences, Occupational Health, Pharmacology, Pharmacy, Physiology, Plant Sciences, Population and Community Ecology, Population Medicine, Public Health, Structural Biology, Toxicology, Veterinary Sciences, Virology, Wildlife Sciences, Zoology (General).
• U.S. citizenship required.

Pay

Stipend: $64,625.00 – $86,007.00 per year.

Schedule

Full‑time appointment.

Appointment Information

Anticipated start date: 2026 (flexible, dependent on various factors). Initial appointment length: one year, renewable upon recommendation of ARS and contingent on availability of funds.

Contact

Mentor: Chang Lee (chang.lee@usda.gov). For questions about the research, please contact the mentor.