Thematic Areas

The negative influence of humans on the Earth ecosystems is undeniable, thus the preservation of wildlife and their functions is our duty. The Virtual 69th WDA / 14th EWDA 2021 Joint Conference seeks to share expertise and recent scientific advances in wildlife disease management. We envision that these will aid in the design and implementation of disease prevention and control strategies that will ultimately result in sustainable, conflict-free, ecosystem management. Infectious disease may threaten ecosystem health in multiple ways, including threatening conservation of small populations and by causing human-wildlife conflicts when shared pathogens are the cause of important livestock or human diseases. The negative influence of people on natural ecosystems is undeniable, so the preservation of these and their wildlife is our duty. Critical to conserving healthy wildlife in healthy ecosystems is understanding the roots of host-pathogen interaction dynamics and the evolutionary mechanisms modulating the relationships between hosts and pathogens.

Scientific advances in the broad topic of wildlife disease management are especially welcome. However, all information on wildlife health and host-pathogen interactions is within the scope of the conference. The non-exclusive thematic areas to which the submitted scientific studies should add, include:

• Integrated monitoring of wildlife population health and new methods for wildlife health surveillance
• Incorporating wildlife health into population and cumulative effects models and conservation plans
• Wildlife disease control and management
• Infection transmission at the wildlife-livestock-human interface
• Ecosystem health, global change and diseases
• Host-pathogen interactions in wildlife
• Neglected and emerging wildlife diseases
• Molecular epidemiology of wildlife pathogens
• Interactions among pathogens and other wildlife health determinants
• Community engagement in wildlife health promotion and conservation