International Symposium on Wildlife Diseases Research Network

In the 21st century, a majority of emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases in humans originate from wild or domestic animals and in return impose a large threat to human society. World collaboration is essential to manage zoonotic diseases following a “One Health” approach because animals, vectors and pathogens move freely in the world without boundaries. Wildlife diseases are significant components of zoonoes, and they have played increasingly important roles in causing pandemics of infectious diseases in recent decades. There is an urgent need to strengthen the capacity of research on wildlife diseases and international collaborations to promote the prevention and control of zoonotic disease in a heathy world for both people and wildlife.

To promote international collaborations on studies of wildlife diseases and to bridge the gaps in the prevention and control of diseases in humans, domestic animals and wild animals, the International Society of Zoological Sciences (ISZS, http://www.globalzoology.org.cn/) is developing a Wildlife Diseases Research Network (WDRN) worldwide, with collaboration of its partners, such as the Working Group on Zoonotic Disease (WGZD) of the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) (https://iubs.org/).

The 1st International Symposium of Wildlife Diseases Research Network (1st WDRN symposium) will be held at Haikou, Hainan, China, during June 26-28, 2023. The symposium is co-organized by the International Society of Zoological Sciences (ISZS) and the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS), hosted by Hainan University, assisted by the Institute of Zoology (IOZ), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), sponsored by China Association of Science and Technology (CAST) and CAS and supported by Animal Diseases.
The WDRN symposium aims to strengthen the capacity of research on wildlife diseases and international collaborations to promote the prevention and control of zoonotic disease for a heathy world for both people and wildlife. Main topics including but not limited to:

(1) Genomics and coevolution of hosts, vectors and pathogens
(2) Disease transmission across species
(3) Impact of climate change on disease prevalence
(4) Influence of biological invasion on disease transmission
(5) Influence of the migration of animals or their products on disease transmission
(6) Impact of biodiversity loss on disease transmission
(7) Identification of hosts, vectors and pathogens
(8) Network construction and analysis of disease transmission
(9) Monitoring and surveillance of hosts, vectors and pathogens and their habitats
(10) Prevention and control of disease transmission
(11) Diagnostic reagents, vaccines, drugs and related equipment

The symposium will be held both online and offline in the International Academic Exchange Center, Hainan University. There will be a posttour of visiting a national geographic park on June 29. The online registration fee is zero, and the off-line (onsite) registration fee is 300 $ per person (half for students or ISZS members; zero for one person who contributes one chapter for the Annual Report on Wildlife Disease or paper for INZ special issue, see below; zero for symposium organizers and speakers with oral presentation). The organizing committee of WDRN can help participants (who have paid the reregistration fee) to reserve a hotel room (350 or 450 Chinese Yuan per night) in the International Academic Exchange Center, Hainan University before 15 May 2023.

For registration, please fill out the Appendix and send it to Dr. Hongjun Li (lihj@ioz.ac.cn) before the deadline of May 15, 2023. For those interested in giving an oral presentation (20 minutes plus 5 minutes discussion, PPT 16:9) or posters (for details, see Appendix 4), please submit your abstract (for details, see: Appendix 5) and speaker’s information to Dr. Hongjun Li (lihj@ioz.ac.cn) before the deadline of May 15, 2023. For online oral presentation, prerecorded video is needed (for details, see Appendix 6), which should be sent to Dr. Hongjun Li before the deadline of June 15, 2023.

We look forward to your attendance and contribution to the Symposium on Wildlife Diseases Research Network (WDRN).

Organizing committee of WDRN