Welcome to the ENETWILD Newsletter!
ENETWILD is an international network of wildlife professionals focused on integrating wildlife management with pathogens’ surveillance and management. The project is funded by EFSA.
In this newsletter you will stay in the loop on the latest publications and updates in the wildlife world, you will have access to event information and will get to know more about the people involved in the project.

Latest related publications

🦠Highly pathogenic avian influenza in wild mammals: critical appraisal of spill-over events and of strategies for prevention, surveillance and preparedness ⬇️
https://zenodo.org/records/14002535– ENETWILD Consortium
🪳 Machine learning algorithms for the evaluation of risk by tick-borne pathogens in Europe ⬇️
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07853890.2024.2405074
Piece of news available here
💊 Pharmaceuticals in avian scavengers and other birds of prey: A toxicological perspective to improve risk assessments⬇️
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S004896972404573X?via%3Dihub
Piece of news available here
Upcoming events

The Ecological Society of America will hold its annual meeting in Baltimore on 10-15 August 2025 in a very special edition to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the organization.
- Proposal Submission Deadline: Symposia, Organized Oral Sessions and Inspire Sessions is November 14, 2024.
- Proposal Submission Deadline:Career Central, Workshops, Short Courses, Special Sessions and Field Trips is November 19, 2024
- Abstract Submission Deadline:
Contributed Abstracts is February 27, 2025
The upcoming 13rd edition of the “Wildlife Epidemiology and Disease Control” course (WildEpi) will take place in November 2024 (November 25-29) and March 2025 (March 17-21)
The course is part of the specialized training offered by the Research Institute in Hunting Resources (IREC – CSIC, UCLM, JCCM), in this case through its Research Group in Health and Biotechnology (SaBio).
Inscriptions open until end November.


The 14th Edition of the European Vertebrate Management Conference will be held next 12-16 May 2025 in Ankaran, Slovenia.
We want to inform you that the organization has extended the abstract submission period until November 30, so you are still in time to submit it if you are interested.
For any additional information, you can contact Mr. Boštjan Pokorny (bostjan.pokorny@fvo.si), member of the organizing committee of the event, or contact the official email of the conference at evmc@fvo.si.
Updates
ENETWILD and the European Observatory for Wildlife have established their respective advisory boards.
The consortium prioritizes scientific excellence and has enlisted renowned experts in wildlife health, management, and policy to support its initiatives. These experts will offer strategic guidance, expert insights, and independent assessments to ensure the project’s objectives are met and uphold high standards of scientific and operational excellence.
📑Check out this report on the activities carried out by the EOW “Generating wildlife density data across Europe in the framework of the European Observatory of Wildlife (EOW)”
SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) is an open source software, which allows easily collect, visualize, store, analyze, report and act on a wide range of field data relevant for wildlife monitoring. ENETWILD, made now available new IT functionalities to wildlife professionals and researchers to facilitate and harmonize wildlife data collection systems.
📝Check out this report to discover the potential of SMART: “Development of an app for processing data on wildlife density in the field”- ENETWILD Consoritum
In North Macedonia, 20 rangers and nature conservation experts from a dozen countries in Europe and around the world have participated in a five-day training programme on the use of this tool.
🗞️Piece of news available here
📹Video on how SMART works here
Interview

Relax and enjoy this interview with Joaquín Vicente Baños, professor at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) at IREC: National Institute on Wildlife Research.
Could you start telling us a bit about your role in the project?
I had the opportunity to write the proposal for the first edition of ENETWILD and to coordinate the project in its first 6 years. During this time, starting almost from scratch and helping to create a network of collaborators was a challenge. All this while addressing the issues and research raised by EFSA, as well as continuously providing data on wildlife distribution and abundance in Europe.
Why does the project ENETWILD motivate you?
Precisely this huge challenge that we had initially, to build a community of collaborators who not only contribute information but also benefit from using it.
In terms of what mainly motivated me, I think it was a big step to start harmonising at European level the way we monitor wildlife and to be able to lay the foundations for making informed decisions in a coordinated and scientifically based way on wildlife management and risks under a One Health perspective.
What are some of the key achievements or milestones reached by ENETWILD since its inception?
Firstly, I would highlight the creation of a network of partners at European level.
Secondly, the development of standards that allow us to share information and then use it.
Thirdly, as an effective demonstration that we really can work in a coordinated way at European level, the creation of the European Observatory of Wildlife (EOW).
On the other hand, I would also highlight the fact that we have been able to use the information collected and generate predictions of wildlife abundance and distribution at a resolution that has never been done before at such a scale, with models already in use for risk assessment.
I would also highlight the citizen science activities, through which we demonstrated that with limited resources and a modest communication campaign it was possible to encourage citizen participation and dramatically increase records on mammal species distribution, particularly in areas where there was a lack of such data, thanks to the MammalNet project.
Finally, I would stress that this community of experts and researchers in wildlife management, wildlife conservation and health issues has the capacity to address any issue that arises at the European level in terms of wildlife health risk assessment or wildlife management and conservation issues.
What are the potential implications of ENETWILD’s work for conservation and wildlife management efforts in Europe?
The potential of the work done by ENETWILD for wildlife conservation and management and associated risks is enormous since all decision-making processes have to be technically and scientifically informed, and I would say that almost for the first time, except for some cases in migratory wild birds, we have been able to provide information that allows us to make decisions in a coordinated way at the European level.
In short, ENETWILD has created a system for generating and collecting data on wildlife distribution and abundance that can contribute to future wildlife and biodiversity monitoring schemes in Europe, which will be strengthened in the coming years. This is clearly shown by the creation of the future European Biodiversity Observation Coordination Centre (EBOCC).

How does ENETWILD contribute to analyzing the risks of diseases shared between wildlife, livestock, and humans?
Any risk analysis requires spatial information on the distribution of risks and their determinants, and information on the distribution and abundance of wildlife, with few exceptions, was not available until ENETWILD started its work. Nor had the areas of interaction between wildlife and livestock been mapped, to which human beings must be added. Therefore, the availability of this information is now allowing risk assessment studies to be carried out that were not possible before, and with them informed decision-making.
What are the next expected impacts?
Firstly, we hope that the different administrations, organisations, initiatives and projects related to wildlife monitoring will be motivated once they see the achievements of ENETWILD, and contribute to this coordinated wildlife monitoring scheme in Europe.
Secondly, we hope to obtain increasingly accurate maps of wildlife distribution and abundance, and thus increase capacities for risk assessment at European level.
What would you like ENETWILD to accomplish in the end?
I would be delighted if this collaborative approach between administrations, states, organisations and stakeholders could be mirrored at national level in the different European countries, so that they can have interoperable wildlife monitoring systems, while developing cooperation between all of them.
Anything you would like to highlight for the readers of the newsletter?
I would like to highlight the work of ENETWILD through its different activities, such as the European Observatory of Wildlife (EOW), training activities, the development of tools that have facilitated the transfer of information or the provision of accessible and public information to readers. All these activities motivate readers, whether they are professional researchers or simply citizen scientists, to want to contribute to wildlife monitoring in Europe and thus to help wildlife conservation, wildlife management and the resolution of conflicts involving wildlife (albeit always created by humans).