In the 21st century, the human society is facing serious threat and challenges of infectious diseases under accelerated climate change and intensified human activities. A majority of emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases in humans is originated from wild or domestic animals, and in return imposes a big threat to biodiversity conservation and livestock production. In order to have a better prevention and control of zoonotic diseases, it is crucial to understand the complex interaction patterns of disease transmission between humans, animals, vectors and pathogens under the rapid change of climate, other drivers of global change, and society by following a “One Health” approach. At the same time, world collaboration is essential to manage zoonotic diseases because animals, vectors and pathogens move freely in the world without boundaries.
Wildlife diseases are significant components of zoonoes, and they are playing increasingly important roles in causing pandemics of infectious diseases in recent decades. As compared to diseases in humans or domestic animals, wildlife diseases are poorly studied due to the vast diversity of their pathogens, hosts, vectors and habitats as well as global shortage of investment for research. Thus, there is an urgent need to strengthen the capacity of research on wildlife diseases, and international collaborations, in order to promote the prevention and control of zoonotic disease for a heathy world for both people and wildlife.
The International Society of Zoological Sciences (ISZS) is a non-government organization aiming to promote international cooperation in field of zoology by integrating multiple disciplines covering animals, plants, microorganisms, climate change, and human activities. To promote international collaborations on studies of wildlife diseases, and to bridge the gaps in prevention and control of diseases of humans, domestic animals and wild animals, ISZS is developing a Wildlife Diseases Research Network (WDRN) in the world, with collaboration of its partner such as Working Group on Zoonotic Disease (WGZD) of International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) (https://iubs.org/). WDRN is composed of a steering committee, a scientific committee, research expert network and collaborative partners. WDRN will hold annual symposia, workshops, training courses and publish an annual report on wildlife diseases. With support from the WDRN’s expert teams and its partners, WDRN aims to build a database and information center to facilitate the research, monitoring, prevention and control of wildlife diseases around the world. WDRN is devoted to work with IUBS, WHO, WOAH (OIE), FAO, and other organizations to promote prevention and control of zoonotic diseases in the world.
ISZS is going to hold the first International Symposium on Wildlife Diseases Research Network (WDRN) on June 26-28, 2023 in Haikou, Hainan province of China. The WDRN symposium will be held in both on-line and off-line formats. There will be a post-tour of visiting a national geographic park on June 29. The symposium’s topics related to wildlife diseases or zoonotic disease include:
(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 migration of animals or their products on the 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
(12) Others
The WDRN symposium is co-organized by ISZS and IUBS, hosted by Hainan University, assisted by the Institute of Zoology (IOZ), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and sponsored by China Association of Science and Technology (CAST) and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
On behalf of the organizing committee, we warmly invite you to attend the WDRN symposium and join in the cooperative network. The online registration fee is zero, off-line (onsite) registration fee is 300$ per person (Appendix 1, 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). For registration, please fill the Appendix 2 and send it to Dr. Hongjun Li (lihj@ioz.ac.cn) before the deadline of May 15, 2023. The WDRN symposium will be held in the International Academic Exchange Center, Hainan University. The venue and transportation information are shown in Appendix 3. 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 15th May, 2023 (Appendix 2).
For those interested in organizing a session (6-8 people for each session for a half day), or 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, pre-recorded video is needed (for details, see Appendix 6), which should be sent to Dr. Hongjun Li before the deadline of June 15, 2023.
WDRN is calling for experts to write the 2022 Annual Report on Wildlife Disease. The annual report will consist of 10-20 chapters, and each chapter has about 3000-5000 words plus figures, photos, tables, pictures. Each chapter should focus on key wildlife or zoonotic diseases in a key region or the world in 2022, and give a whole picture about prevalence of zoonotic disease, transmission route, hosts and vectors, damages and losses, influencing social or environmental or climatic factors, prevention and control measures, and suggestions for early warning or prevention of coming years. The deadline of submission of the report is May 30, 2023. The annual report will be released in our website (linking with those of our partners). Once the annual report is accepted, a financial support package (registration fee, hotel fee and round-trip economy class air-ticket) will be made available to the lead author (only one person) attending the WRDN meeting in 2023 or next years, or the International Symposium of Integrative Zoology (ISIZ) held annually, or the International Congress of Zoology (ICZ) held every four years in different parts of the world. For details, please see Appendix 7, and contact Mrs. Wenhua Xiong (xiongwh@ioz.ac.cn).
Integrative Zoology (INZ, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17494877) is going to publish special issues from selected papers contributed in the WDRN symposium (see Appendix 8). For those interested in submitting a paper to INZ, please contact with Dr. Wenhua Xiong (xiongwh@ioz.ac.cn). The deadline of submission of the report is May 30, 2023. For those with a paper beingfinally accepted, a financial support package (registration fee, hotel fee and round-trip economy class air-ticket) will be available for one author attending the WRDN meeting in 2023 or next years, or the International Symposium of Integrative Zoology (ISIZ) held annually, or the International Congress of Zoology (ICZ) held every four years in different parts of the world.
We look forward to your attendance and contribution to the Symposium on Wildlife Diseases Research Network (WDRN)!
Yours sincerely,
Organizing committee of WDRN
For more details, please check the attachment below.
WDRN-symposium first flyer 2023.4.16-version.docx
