WMI Special Sessions: Current Approaches to SARS-CoV-2 , COVID-19, and Wildlife Health

The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 and its associated disease, COVID-19, began to impact our daily lives at the 85th North American (March 2020). Now, almost a year later, we continue to face the impacts of SARS-CoV-2 across the globe, including the development of wildlife zoonotic reservoirs, enhanced understanding of species susceptibility, possible human-wildlife interaction infection pathways in our natural environments, and ongoing resource management decisions and hardships in face of the global pandemic crisis. Already beleaguered by an onslaught of introduced and emerging wildlife pathogens when SARS-CoV-2 arrived in North America, natural resources at the time were facing significant biosecurity challenges for wildlife biologists, veterinarians, land managers, laboratory researchers, and policy makers. COVID-19, as a zoonotic disease, poses not only a high human-health risk but also potential risks for North American wildlife, thus presenting a novel and unwelcome challenge in wildlife epidemiology. This session will update us on the research and strategies implemented and in development to combat the pandemic in the natural resources and biological community. Presenters will discuss specific species (mink, white-tailed deer, bats, and more) susceptibility, US and North American strategies to face the virus, wildlife and human risk mitigation, biosecurity policy and approaches, and the latest science from the front. Speakers include representatives from USDA including the National Animal Disease Center, USFS, USGS including the National Wildlife Health Center, and the University of California Davis.