WELCOME to the Virtual 69th WDA /14th EWDA 2021 Joint Conference.
 
This is the 2nd time in history that the “mother” International Wildlife Disease Association (WDA) liaises with the European section (EWDA) to organize a joint Conference that provides members and non-members with the opportunity of exchanging science, expertise, mentoring and good conversations on wildlife health unfortunately not as planned with a coffee, beer or wine in hand, but in a unique and new virtual setting and more than ever with the final goal of better Managing Wildlife Diseases for Sustainable Ecosystems.
 
Although the 69th annual WDA / 14th biennial EWDA Joint Conference had been planned to take place in the beautiful medieval city of Cuenca (Spain) on August 30 - September 3, 2021 it will now be held in a user-friendly online format designed for all of us to get the maximum benefit and insights. Although a Virtual Conference can never fully replace the opportunity to meet friends and colleagues, we have streamlined our Conference to provide a maximum of opportunities for interaction and networking as well as for room for discussion and lots of useful exciting information! The Conference will also advertise parallel activities as the EWDA Wildlife Health Surveillance Network meeting and will try to keep celebrating the traditional Student-Mentor mixer. 
 
In the Anthropocene epoch the impact of human activities is evident even on the Earth’s geology. We, humans, have influenced almost every single ecosystem on the planet and nowadays these cannot be understood and protected without taking into consideration the unstoppable influence of humans over the millennia. This Conference seeks to provide the scientific and technical bases for the future strategies to protect and preserve our naturally inherited wildlife richness by ‘Managing Wildlife Diseases for Sustainable Ecosystems’. Advances in all aspects of wildlife diseases are within the scope of the topic, and those with a special focus on advances in wildlife disease management are most welcome.
 
The Conference is hosted by the University of Castilla – La Mancha (UCLM) in a dynamic and user-friendly online format. Leading wildlife disease research institutions in Spain - UCLM, the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the University of Córdoba - joined together in the Organizing Committee.