Month: January 2018

WS coordinators: C. Billinis, N. Papadopoulos, C. Hadjichristodoulou

This all-day workshop will be held on Monday, August 27th, 2018. It aims to combine the existing knowledge in wildlife and biomedical research and the acquired experience with field work activities. The attendants will gain the necessary practical knowledge to conduct research and interpret the acquired data following formal analysis. The major sections of this workshop are (a) field data collection, and (b) analysis with special reference to the West Nile virus (WNV) example. Special emphasis has been placed on field sampling techniques, data archiving, curing and preparation, advanced statistical analysis and GIS modelling. Participants will attend and execute (a) field work activities (data collection, wild bird count, trapset-up, capturing selected species of mosquitoes, adult and larvae sampling), (b) desktop work (preparation of data, enter field data using suitable statistical software, selection of parameters, descriptive analysis and results’ interpretation, analyze field data through applied multivariate statistical analysis using methods such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Cluster analysis, GIS data base development, and GIS modelling), and (c)  identification of major mosquito species to genus and species level.

Participants will be introduced to the state-of-the-art methodology for biomedical studies, including clinical trials, observational studies, sampling and GIS modelling.

Field work will be conducted in the Area of Karla lake-wetland (Mavrovouni Kefalovriso – Velestino) in cooperation with Ecodevelopment (Karla Management Body). Karla wetland in part of the NATURA 2000 network (GR1420004)-(GR1430007)-Sites of Community Importance (SCI) and for Special Areas of Conservation (SAC). Presentations, data analysis and round table discussions will be held at the Department of Medicine (Viopolis, Larissa).

This all day workshop will be held on Monday, August 27th, 2018 from 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM

Workshop registration includes training materials, light lunch, coffee and refreshments as well as the transportation to Karla lake-wetland. Registration is limited to 45 participants.

Instuctors:

• Prof. Periklis Birtsas, Laboratory of Wildlife Ecology, Department of Forestry and Natural Environment, University of Applied Sciences-TEI  of Thessaly, Greece,
• Konstantinos Papaspyropoulos PhD, Special Advisor of Alternate Minister of Environment and Energy,
• Christos Sokos PhD, Department of Wildlife and Hunting, Ministry of Environment and Energy, Greece,
• Alexios Giannakopoulos, Phd Wildlife Ecology Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Veterinary Faculty, University of Thessaly, Greece),
• Ast. Prof George Rachiotis, Nikolas Bitsolas, Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly, Greece
• Dr. Charalampos Ioannou, Laboratory of Entomology and Agricultural Zoology, mosquito specialist,
• Mr. George Mastronikolos, Laboratory of Entomology and Agricultural Zoology.
• Dr. Thomas Kilindris, Laboratory of Medical Physics & Informatics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Thessaly,
• Georgia Delivasi, MSc, Ioannis Vergos, MSc, Dimitris Michalakis, Management Body of Ecodevelopment Area of Karla – Mavrovouni – Kefalovriso – Velestino.

Workshop coordinator   Dr. Sasan Fereidouni

The occurrence of highly infectious diseases such as highly pathogenic avian influenza, West Nile, chytridiomycosis, CWD and Ebola, and their spread from one country to other countries and one continent to another one, prompted costly monitoring programs of wild birds and domestic poultry, bats, reptilians and mammals.

Demands for monitoring wild birds and domestic poultry for avian influenza viruses have increased enormously worldwide in the recent years due to an almost panzootic spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses of subtypes H5N1, H5N6 and H5N8.

The whole process of sample collection, transport, and analysis is time-, labor- and money-consuming. In addition, organizing field trips, collecting of all necessary documents and official permissions and establishment of cold chain are very crucial.

In this workshop, whole process of sampling from A-Z will be discussed and strategies to facilitate and economize both surveillance activities and sample analyses will be considered, including sample size estimation, strategies to reduce the chance of cross-contamination in whole process of sampling, working based on the good sampling practice, establishment of cold chain from sample collection to storage in the analyses, and reducing materials and consumables in process of sample collection and analyses.

Duration:  10:00 AM  to 2:00 PM

No. of participants:  up to 40

Coffee break and Light Lunch

Workshop Coordinators:
Dr. Joaquín Vicente

SaBio (Sanidad y Biotecnología) research group, National Wildlife Research Institute IREC (CSIC-Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha)

Dr. Pelayo Acevedo

SaBio (Sanidad y Biotecnología) research group, National Wildlife Research Institute IREC (CSIC-Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha)

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Wildlife disease surveillance is nowadays an integral component of general animal health surveillance, for instance, for selected diseases of particular relevance such as rabies, classical swine fever, african swine fever, high pathogenic avian influenza). However, most current European wildlife pathogen surveillance schemes lack integration with appropriate population data.

This workshop is aimed to: i) highlight the relevance of population data for wildlife disease surveillance, i.e. integrated monitoring, ii) provide an overview of the methodologies available to estimate population abundance/density in wildlife and iii) gain some skills to design a survey and analyze data with one of the most flexible, feasible and reliable method, the distance sampling (http://distancesampling.org/)

SPEAKERS

1. Ana Valente (University of Aveiro, Portugal),
2. Jose Angel Barasona (VISAVET, Spain) and
3. Pablo Palencia (University of Castile-La Mancha, Spain)

GENERAL INFORMATION

The workshop will be held on Monday, August 27th, 2018 from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM and will include:

-2 hours of oral presentations

-2 hours of practical exercise (computer based – use of distance sampling software)

– Coffee break and light lunch

Registration is limited to 20 participants.

Dear Colleagues,

If you are attending the 13^TH EWDA Conference and would like to expand your knowledge on biomonitoring in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) we hope you will consider attending the following Workshop:

“Marine Priority Habitats and species: Applied biomonitoring in Marine Protected Areas and the special-case of Marine Mammals”

Attendees will gain a broad overview of Marine Protected Areas, while developing a greater appreciation for marine mammal biomonitoring issues.

Description of the Workshop

The Workshop will be organized in four sessions, namely:

• Session 1: Marine Priority Habitats and Species (Dr. Chryssanthi Antoniadou)

A thorough overview of marine habitat types and species presenting baseline and applied information on terminology, structural/population features, geographic distribution/extension range, and conservation status in the Hellenic Seas. The latter will address issues related to legal frameworks, conservation status assessments by IUCN and concept of ecosystem-based management approaches.

• Session2: Applied Biomonitoring in MPAs (Dr. Alexios Lolas)

The most prominent applied survey techniques and tools will be presented including habitat mapping using GIS and acoustic data, biodiversity assessment within priority habitats, structural and functional features for each habitat type, population surveys with emphasis on non-destructive techniques, visual census for sessile biota and fish, surveys of permanent plots, mark-recapture techniques.

• Session 3: Guidelines for surveys on marine mammals (Gregory Karamitros)

This section will cover all the essential technical issues applied to acoustic and visual surveys on marine mammals. Throughout, the attendee will be familiar with the last trends of technical equipments (hardware and software) for Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM), using logger software, such as GIS and PAM.

• Session 4: Marine Mammals biomonitoring; From theory to practice (Gregory Karamitros and Dr. George Gkafas)

At the last session all attendees will analyze data files, using real logger databases from scientific surveys via computing systems. Several different cases of acoustic data (sperm whale and dolphin species) will be implemented using basic features of PAMGuard software. All the outputs will be discussed with respect to the conservation and management of the species in question.

Workshop registration includes training materials, light lunch, coffee and refreshments as well as the transportation to Department of Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment in the city of Volos.

This all day workshop will be held on Monday, August 27th, 2018 from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM with a maximum of 50 participants.

Speakers:

• C. Antoniadou (Dept of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
• A. Lolas (Post-doctoral researcher, Dept of Ichthyology & Aquatic Environment, University of Thessaly)
• G. Karamitros (PhD Candidate, Dept of Ichthyology & Aquatic Environment, University of Thessaly)
• G. Gkafas (Assistant Prof., Dept of Ichthyology & Aquatic Environment, University of Thessaly)

Organizers: Professor D. Vafidis (Dept of Ichthyology & Aquatic Environment, University of Thessaly), and Dr. A Exadactylos (Associate Prof., Dept of Ichthyology & Aquatic Environment, University of Thessaly

Many thanks for considering this and we hope to see you at the Workshop.

(WS coordinators: K. Lemberger, G. Wibbelt, U. Hofle)

You are a pathologist, a pathology resident, a veterinary student or a professional dealing with wildlife diseases. You want to broaden your experience in histopathology or find out more about what goes on behind the lenses of a microscope: this workshop is for you!

This all day workshop will be held on Monday, August 27th, 2018 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and will include a keynote lecture (Keynote speaker to be announced)

All participants will receive a USB drive of the scanned histology slides and the case write up materials. Workshop registration includes materials, light lunch and refreshments. Registration is limited to 50 participants.

Call for case submissions:

We are soliciting case submissions for this workshop and invite all participants to contribute. We would like to have a series of 10 cases of interest from wildlife species. These cases can include “classic” lesions, novel findings and general “what the heck” conditions.

Submitting a case means you agree to send one or two H&E slides of the case and a detailed case description on letterhead for inclusion into the course materials. On the day of the workshop you will be asked to give a short presentation of the lesions (via digital slide browsing) and a brief background into the disease or diagnostic process (maximum 12min) .

Scanned slides will be available prior to the conference via dropbox, so participants may prepare ahead of time, attempt to find their own diagnosis and join in the raffle by answering a short quiz on the cases.

Please email Karin Lemberger (k.lemberger@vetdiagnostics.fr) with a brief description of the case by June 6th, 2018.Those applicants with chosen cases will be notified by email by the mid to end of June and receive further instructions for slide submission and case presentation.

IMPORTANT NOTE : Remember that you are welcome to attend the Workshop even if you have not submitted a case!