Progress 02/01/20 to 01/31/21

Outputs
Target Audience:The vision of the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CRWAD) is to bring together scientists, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, industry and government partners to share and present new and unpublished data related to the challenges and solutions for resolving animal diseases. CRWAD aims to provide a venue for communication among scientists studying various animal diseases and between veterinary and biomedical scientists. CRWAD 2020's virtual format allowed for participation by 742 registrants, including senior scientists, post-doctoral research associates and graduate students. Participants are from 35 countries. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia represented the United States in the representation of countries. To allow for maximum access to the 2020 Conference materials, submitted abstracts and all featured speaker presentations are available to registered participants for viewing from December 5, 2020 through June 20, 2021. The virtual format also provides an option for registrants to engage with the virtual presentations through a comment and question feature of the virtual platform. Changes/Problems:Due to the unprecedented challenges to in person meetings posed by the global pandemic, CRWAD was held virtually for the first time in the organization's history. The meeting was originally planned for an in-person meeting in Chicago, but a late summer decision was made to move CRWAD to a fully virtual conference due to the global pandemic, necessitating changes at all levels of planning for the conference. The goal of providing optimal access to as many scientists in animal diseases drove the decision to move to a virtual conference. The change to a fully virtual format required CRWAD to develop a virtual platform that supported livestreamed featured presentations, provided for uploads and viewing of submitted abstracts in a format that is searchable, and provided a way for interaction between the presenters and the viewers from the ground up. The move to a virtual format changed the economics of the conference and forced CRWAD to move resources that were otherwise planned for speaker and student travel support to the developmemt of the virtual platform. The changes to a virtual format caused more planning and work on the part of the CRWAD Conference team but resulted in a more accessible Conference for participants who otherwsie would not have been able to participate due to the global pandemic. These changes will allow for adjustments to future meetings to allow for greater access to participants who might otherwise have financial or travel limitations. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The accessibility of the recorded featured presentations and submitted abstracts provides additional training opportunities for training with gradaute students. Registrants advising graduate students can access the proceedings and compilation presentations and abstracts to be used for training opportunities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The proceedings of CRWAD 2020 is available to any intersted party at www.crwad.org. Paid registrants can access the content of CRWAD 2020 until June 30, 2021 at www.crwad.org. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This is the final progress report of this award. CRWAD 2021 will build of this year's virtual meeting model to include a hybrid conference with in-person and virtual content to allow for maximum participation of international scientists in animal diseases in a meaningful and collaborative way. CRWAD sees this as a significant way to connect international scientists in a format that will increase participation and sharing among researchers in animal diseases.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The 2020 Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CRWAD) meeting was the organizations 101st meeting. Due to the unprecedented challenges to in person meetings posed by the global pandemic, CRWAD was held virtually for the first time in the organization's history. The meeting was originally planned for an in-person meeting in Chicago, but a late summer decision was made to move CRWAD to a fully virtual conference due to the global pandemic, necessitating changes at all levels of planning for the conference. The goal of providing optimal access to as many scientists in animal diseases drove the decision to move to a virtual conference. Despite this format change, CRWAD delivered 2 keynote presentations, 15 featured speaker presentations, and 4 featured presentation as part of a special African Swine Fever Symposium through a livestream virtual platform December 5 - 8, 2020. These distinguished presentations and 420 submitted abstract presentations were made available for on demand viewing. The 21 distinguished presentations of CRWAD were delivered by: Keynote Speaker, Dr. Rafi Ahmed, "T Cell Memory and Exhaustion: Implications for Immunotherapy"; Keynote Speaker, Dr. Amesh Adalja, "The Characteristics of Pandemic Pathogens"; African Swine Fever Symposium Featured Speaker, Dr. Paul Sundberg,"ASF: US prevention, preparedness and response"; African Swine Fever Symposium Featured Speaker, Dr. Raymond R. R. (Bob) Rowland, "Novel tools for ASF control and prevention: 7 years' research in Kansas Biosecurity Research Institute"; African Swine Fever Symposium Featured Speaker, Dr. Scott Dee, "The risk of feed for viral transport and transmission: What do we know and what can we do"; African Swine Fever Symposium Featured Speaker, Dr. Waithaka Mwangi, "Prospects for an African Swine Fever Virus Subunit DIVA Vaccine"; ACVM Distinguished Microbiologist, Dr. Roy Curtiss, "Converting a Pathogen to Become a Servant"; Calvin Schwabe Recipient, Dr.Larry Glickman,"Utilizing big data in veterinary medicine'; AAVI Distinguished Immunologist, Dr. D. Scott McVey, "A Journey Through Vaccine Valley"; ACVM Microbiology and Disease Pathogenesis Features Speakers Dr. Thomas Gallagher,"Host factors controlling susceptibility to coronavirus infections" and Dr. Srinand Sreevatsan,"Mycobacterium-host interactions-Lessons from 25 years of research on a slow growing bacterium"; AAVI Immunology Featured Speakers Dr. Jay Calvert, "From Scientific Discovery to Commercial Product in 10 Easy Steps: The case of CD163 and PRRS Vaccines"; Dr. Roy Curtiss III, "Vaccine Discovery and Development - from Lab to Market Place"; Dr. Douglas Gladue, "Advances in African swine fever live-attenuated vaccines" and Dr. Shawn Bearson, "DIVA vaccine cross-protects againstSalmonellaserovars in food animals"; Population Health Featured Speakers Dr. Alan Beck, "The biology of the human-animal bond"; Dr. Charlene Edinboro,"Small animals-Big data!"; and Dr. George E. Moore, "Big data - Big benefits or big obstacles?"; and Animal Vaccinology Research Featured Speakers Dr. Steven Geary, "Update on the USAVRCN"; Dr. Cyril Gay, "The U.S National Biodefense Strategy for developing veterinary countermeasures to prepare and respond to biological threat agents"; and Dr. John Wyckoff,"From Discovery to Corporate Development; Challenges between Academia and Commercialization." In addition to the partnerships with AAVI, ACVM and AVEPM, CRWAD continued its collaboration with NC229 and the North American PRRS Symposium on the content of a special African Swine Fever Symposium. CRWAD also added sessions led by USAVRCN as part of our programming for the Conference as an added partner in 2020. Continued collaboration with these groups and NC1202, AAVP, STVM and the Joseph J. Garbarino Bio Safety and Bio Security Foundtion to award student awards to graduate student participants. CRWAD continues to strengthen and grow partnerships to meet CRWAD's vision of bringing together scientists, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, industry and government partners to share and present new and unpublished data related to the challenges and solutions for resolving animal diseases. The presentation of CRWAD 2020 virtually allowed for participation by 742 registrants, including senior scientists, post-doctoral research associates and graduate students. This registration number is similar to the number of registrants from last year's Conference, despite the change in format and the challeges of the global pandemic on participatns. All featured speaker presentation and the 420 submitted abstracts were made available to registered participants for viewing from December 5, 2020 through June 20, 2021. This on demand format allows all registrants access to every presentation and abstract in a way that does not create any conflicts with scheduling of presentations associated with in person meetings. CRWAD 2021 will build of this year's virtual meeting model to include a hybrid conference with in-person and virtual content to allow for maximum participation of international scientists in animal diseases in a meaningful and collaborative way.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2020 Citation: Proceedings of the 2020 Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases. Complied and edited by Dr. Paul Morley. The proceedings are available electronically at www.crwad.org

Progress 02/01/19 to 01/27/21

Outputs
Target Audience:The vision of the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CRWAD) is to bring together scientists, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, industry and government partners to share and present new and unpublished data related to the challenges and solutions for resolving animal diseases. CRWAD is a conference where the convergence of multiple disciplines aims to provide a venue for communication among scientists studying various animal diseases and between veterinary and biomedical scientists. Over the course of this project award, CRWAD organized and hosted two Confernences for reseachers focused on animal diseases. These two Conferences provided 38 presentations by distiguished invited speakers on topics including microbiology and disease pathogenesis, immunology, population health, and the importance of cross-discipline scientific research. More than 700 people registered for each Conference, with attendees from more than 35 countries reached with the content of the Conference. CRWAD's 2019 meeting reached 701 participants. The conference sponsored 20 $500 travel grants for graduate students to attend the meeting from this grant. A student award competition also helped encourage graduate students to engage in the meeting. The meeting featured partner organization meetings (North American PRRS Symposium, International Brucellosis, NC 229 and NC1202 committee meetings). Concurrent abstract sessions and poster sessions encouraged the exchange of ideas and collaboration of participants. CRWAD 2020's virtual format allowed for participation by 742 registrants, including senior scientists, post-doctoral research associates and graduate students. Participants are from 35 countries. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia represented the United States in the representation of countries. A student award competition helped encourage graduate student participation in the meeting. To allow for maximum access to the 2020 Conference materials, submitted abstracts and all featured speaker presentations are available to registered participants for viewing from December 5, 2020 through June 20, 2021. The virtual format also provided an option for registrants to engage with the virtual presentations through a comment and question feature of the virtual platform. Building on the reach of these Conferences, CRWAD plans for a hybrid 2021 Conference that will allow for in-person and remote participation to allow for maximum participation and interaction by our target audience of scientists, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, industry and government partners. Changes/Problems:Due to the unprecedented challenges to in person meetings posed by the global pandemic, CRWAD was held virtually for the first time in the organization's history. The meeting was originally planned for an in-person meeting in Chicago, but alate summer decision was made to move CRWAD to a fully virtual conference due to the global pandemic, necessitating changes at all levels of planning for the conference. The goal of providing optimal access to as many scientists in animal diseases drove the decision to move to a virtual conference. The change to a fully virtual format required CRWAD to develop a virtual platform that supported livestreamed featured presentations, provided for uploads and viewing of submitted abstracts in a format that is searchable, and provided a way for interaction between the presenters and the viewers from the ground up. The move to a virtual format changed the economics of the conference and forced CRWAD to move resources that were otherwise planned for speaker and student travel support to the development of the virtual platform. The changes to a virtual format caused more planning and work on the part of the CRWAD Conference team but resulted in a more accessible Conference for participants who otherwise would not have been able to participate due to the global pandemic. These changes will allow for adjustments to future meetings to allow for greater access to participants who might otherwise have financial or travel limitations. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?These CRWAD meetings allowed graduate students and post-doctoral research associates to have the experience of presenting an oral or poster scientific paper in a setting that allowed for feedback and collaboration with many senior scientists. These students and associates had the opportunity to be mentored by some of the most notable scientists in the fields of animal diseases. The accessibility of the recorded featured presentations and submitted abstracts of the 2020 meeting provided additional training opportunities for training with graduate students. Registrants advising graduate students can access the proceedings and compilation presentations and abstracts to be used for training opportunities. Additionally, the integration of the partner meetings with CRWAD allowed participants to engage in meetings for a specific, organized discipline and connect with colleagues to develop professional relationships for longer term collaborations. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The proceedings of the most recent CRWAD meetings, including those held under this project, are available at www.crwad.org at no cost. Additionally, the 2020 Conference materials, submitted abstracts and all featured speaker presentations are available to registered participants in video presentations for viewing from December 5, 2020 through June 20, 2021. The virtual format also provides an option for registrants to engage with the virtual presentations through a comment and question feature of the virtual platform. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Over the course of this project CRWAD reached over 700 attendees each year, including senior scientists, post-doctoral research associates, graduate students, industry and government partners, and representatives of other organizations focused on animal research. The attendees were provided an opportunity to share research with similarity between diseases and interact with colleagues in a transdisciplinary approach. The Conferences held during this project award also provided a forum for partner organizations to meet within their discipline in conjunction with the Conferences but also be part of the multiple concurrent scientific sessions of the Conferences to network with fellow researchers and explore a multiple disciplinary approach to research. The 2019 Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CRWAD) celebrated the 100th annual meeting. The Centennial meeting featured a keynote speaker, 16 featured speakers, and 270 oral and 225 poster scientific presentations. A special banquet marking the 100th meeting was held to celebrate the milestone. Additionally, the North American PRRS Symposium, NC229 and NC1202 multistate committee meetings and International Brucellosis groups met during the meeting. There were 701 registered attendees. Features speakers for the 2019 Conference included : Council Keynote Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaofa, "Working with deadly viruses: Ebola and Influenza"; Dr. David A Benfield, Centennial Speaker, "Viral diseases of swine: Lessons from past, present and future"; Centennial Speaker, Dr. Charles Czuprynski, "Veterinary immunology then and now: 40th anniversary of the AAVI'; Centennial Speaker, Dr. Annette O'Connor, "Casual inference, reproducible research and research synthesis in veterinary science"; AAVI Distinguished Immunologist, Dr. Bettina Wagner, "Host immunity against equine herpesvirus 1"; Dr. T.J. Nagaraja, ACVM Distinguished Microbiologist, "Bovine gut microbes: implications beyond the gut"; Population Health Speakers, Dr. David R. Smith, "Systems thinking in human, animal and Environmental Health", Dr. Dannele Peck, "Two diseases meet at the livestock-wildlife interface: Can we manage for both"; and Dr. Molly McCue, "Working towards precision medicine in the horse"; ACVM Microbiology and Disease Pathogenesis Featured Speakers Dr. Rodney Moxley, "Culture based detection of non-)157 enterohemmorrhagic E. coli; Can further improvements be made" and Dr. Amy Vincent, "Ten years after the 2009 HiNI pandemic - what have we learned about the swine-human interface of influenza"; AAVI Immunology Featured Speakers Dr. Benjamin Beck, "Bacterial infections of catfish: mechanisms of pathogen virulence, host susceptibility and novel control measures"; Dr. Leela Noronha, "Preliminary evaluation of a recombinant subunit vaccine for the protection of white-tailed antibodies"; and Dr. Nicola Mason, "Testing next-generation genetically engineered T cells in dogs with cancer and autoimmunity". The Conference included a Centennial celebration banquet. During the celebration, CRWAD recognized Drs. Margo Holland and Peter Johnson, USDA NIFA Animal Health and Disease Program Leaders, for their many years of support of the CRWAD meeting and for the number of grants that support research presented at the conference. CRWAD was recognized by the City of Chicago for being a partner with the city for the 100 years of their existence. Banquet Speakers were: Dr. Robert Ellis, "Interesting Facts on the early years of CRWAD" and Dr. Stuart Reid, "Science with impact: rare or well done" and Dr. Stuart Reid, "Science with Impact: Rare or Well Done?" The 2019 conference also sponsored 20 $500 travel grants for graduate students to attend the meeting. The 2020 Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CRWAD) meeting was the organizations 101st meeting. Due to the unprecedented challenges to in person meetings posed by the global pandemic, CRWAD was held virtually for the first time in the organization's history. The meeting was originally planned for an in-person meeting in Chicago, but a late summer decision was made to move CRWAD to a fully virtual conference due to the global pandemic, necessitating changes at all levels of planning for the conference. The goal of providing optimal access to as many scientists in animal diseases drove the decision to move to a virtual conference. Despite this format change, CRWAD delivered 2 keynote presentations, 15 featured speaker presentations, and 4 featured presentation as part of a special African Swine Fever Symposium through a livestream virtual platform. These distinguished presentations and 420 submitted abstract presentations were made available for on demand viewing. The 21 distinguished presentations of CRWAD were delivered by: Keynote Speaker, Dr. Rafi Ahmed, "T Cell Memory and Exhaustion: Implications for Immunotherapy"; Keynote Speaker, Dr. Amesh Adalja, "The Characteristics of Pandemic Pathogens"; African Swine Fever Symposium Featured Speaker, Dr. Paul Sundberg,"ASF: US prevention, preparedness and response"; African Swine Fever Symposium Featured Speaker, Dr. Raymond R. R. (Bob) Rowland, "Novel tools for ASF control and prevention: 7 years' research in Kansas Biosecurity Research Institute"; African Swine Fever Symposium Featured Speaker, Dr. Scott Dee, "The risk of feed for viral transport and transmission: What do we know and what can we do"; African Swine Fever Symposium Featured Speaker, Dr. Waithaka Mwangi, "Prospects for an African Swine Fever Virus Subunit DIVA Vaccine"; ACVM Distinguished Microbiologist, Dr. Roy Curtiss, "Converting a Pathogen to Become a Servant"; Calvin Schwabe Recipient, Dr.Larry Glickman,"Utilizing big data in veterinary medicine'; AAVI Distinguished Immunologist, Dr. D. Scott McVey, "A Journey Through Vaccine Valley"; ACVM Microbiology and Disease Pathogenesis Features Speakers Dr. Thomas Gallagher,"Host factors controlling susceptibility to coronavirus infections" and Dr. Srinand Sreevatsan,"Mycobacterium-host interactions-Lessons from 25 years of research on a slow growing bacterium"; AAVI Immunology Featured Speakers Dr. Jay Calvert, "From Scientific Discovery to Commercial Product in 10 Easy Steps: The case of CD163 and PRRS Vaccines"; Dr. Roy Curtiss III, "Vaccine Discovery and Development - from Lab to Market Place"; Dr. Douglas Gladue, "Advances in African swine fever live-attenuated vaccines" and Dr. Shawn Bearson, "DIVA vaccine cross-protects againstSalmonellaserovars in food animals"; Population Health Featured Speakers Dr. Alan Beck, "The biology of the human-animal bond"; Dr. Charlene Edinboro,"Small animals-Big data!"; and Dr. George E. Moore, "Big data - Big benefits or big obstacles?"; and Animal Vaccinology Research Featured Speakers Dr. Steven Geary, "Update on the USAVRCN"; Dr. Cyril Gay, "The U.S National Biodefense Strategy for developing veterinary countermeasures to prepare and respond to biological threat agents"; and Dr. John Wyckoff,"From Discovery to Corporate Development; Challenges between Academia and Commercialization." CRWAD 2020's virtual format allowed for participation by 742 registrants, including senior scientists, post-doctoral researchers and graduate students. Participants are from 35 countries. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia represented the United States in the representation of countries. To allow for maximum access to the 2020 Conference materials, submitted abstracts and all featured speaker presentations are available to registered participants for viewing from December 5, 2020 through June 20, 2021 at www.crwad.org. The virtual format also provides an option for registrants to engage with the virtual presentations through a comment and question feature of the virtual platform. CRWAD 2021 did not offer travel scholarships due to the virtual format, but the Conference registration fee was substantially reduced to allow maximum participation to the virtual meeting

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: Proceedings of the 2019 Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases. Compiled by Dr. David Benfield. The proceedings are available electronically at www.crwad.org Proceedings of the 2020 Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases. Complied and edited by Dr. Paul Morley. The proceedings are available electronically at www.crwad.org

Progress 02/01/19 to 01/31/20

Outputs
Target Audience:The vision of the CRWAD Conference is to bring together scientists,graduate students, post doctoral research associates, industry and government from a variety of interests, backgrounds and disciplines to present new and unpublished data related to challenges and solutions for resolving animal diseases. The similarity between diseases and the mechanisms via pathogens alter the homeostasis of the host implies that an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach is necessary to develop means to mitigate the effects of infectious diseases. CRWAD is a conference where the convergence of the disciplines offers a venue for communication amongst scientists studying various animal diseases and potentially between veterinary and biomedical scientists. Changes/Problems:Dr. Dave Benfield has stepped down as the Executive Director of CRWAD and as the PD of this proposal. The PD duties are in the process of being transferred to Dr. Paul Morley, Tex A&M who is the new Executive Director of CRWAD. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Project allows for graduate students and post doctoral research associates to have the experience of presenting an or or poster scientific paper. These individuals have the opportunity to be mentored by some of the most notable scientists in the fields of animal diseases. A number of awards are presented at the meeting for best oral and poster presentations by graduate students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results in the form of Abstracts are available publicly on the CRWAD website www.crwad.org. There is no charge to access the electronic copy of the proceedings. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Next year will be the 101th meeting of the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases. There will be a CRWAD Council Keynote and other featured speakers. The programming committee and the CRWAD Council continue to improve the scientific quality of the meeting and to increase attendance. The goal is to eventually reach 1000 registrants.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This was a special year for the Conference of Research Workers in Animla Diseases (CRWAD) as we celebrated the 100th annual meeting. This Centennial meeting featured 16Keynote Speakers, the CRWAD Council Keynote Speaker, a banquet and 270oral and 225 poster scientific presentations. The CRWAD meeting was held in conjunction with the North American Conference, NC229 and NC1202 multistate committee meetings and the International Brucellosis meeting. There were 701 registered attendees. Features speakers were: Council Keynote Yoshihiro Kawaofa, "Working with deadly viruses: Ebola and Influenza"; David A Benfield, the Microbiology and Disease Pathogenesis Centennial Speaker, "Viral diseases of swine: Lessons from past, present and future"; Immunology Centennial Speaker, Charles Czuprynski, "Veterinary immunology then and now: 40th anniversity of the AAVI'; Population Health Centennial Speaker, Annette O'Connor, "Casual inference, reproducible research and research synthesis in veterinary science"; AAVI Distinguished Immunology, Bettina Wagner, "Host immunity against equine herpesvirus 1"; ACVM Distinguished Microbiologist, "Bovine gut microbes: implications beyond the gut"; Population Health Speakers, David R. Smith, "Systems thinking in human, animal and Environmental Health": Dannele Peck, "Two diseases meet at the livestock-wildlife interface: Can we manage for both"; andMolly McCue, "Working towards precision medicine in the horse"; ACVM Microbiology and Disease Pathogenesis Featured Speakers Rodney Moxley, "Culture based detection of non-)157 enterohemmorrhagic E. coli; Can further improvements be made" and Amy Vincent, "Ten years after the 2009 HiNI pandemic - what have we learned about the swine-human interface of influenza";AAVI Immunology Featured Speakers Benjamion Beck, "Bacterial infections of catfish: mechanisms of pathogen virulence, host susceptibility and novel control measures"; Leela Noronha, "Preliminary evaluation of a recombinant subunit vaccine for the protection of white-tailed deed from epizootic hemorraghic syndrome": Kevin Henry, "Genetics and immunological functions of camelid heavy chain antibodies"; and Nicola Mason, "Testing next-generation genetically engineered T cells in dogs with cancer and sutoimmunity". The celebration banquet was attended by 300 people. CRWAD recognized Drs. Margo Holland and Peter Johnson, USDA NIFA Animal Health and Disease Program Leaders for their many years of support of the CRWAD meeting and for the number of grants that support research presented at the conference. CRWAD was recognized by the City of Chicago for being a partner with the city for the 100 years of their existence. Banquet Speakers were: Dr. Robert Ellis, "Interesting Facts on the early years of CRWAD" and Dr. Stuart Reid, "Science with impact: rare or well done." The conference also sponsored 20 $500 travel grants for graduate students to attend the meeting from this grant. Add information on student awards???? The date for the 2020 meeting is December 5-8 at the Chicago Marriott, Downtown Magnificent Mile, Chicago, IL. Abstract deadline will be July 20, 2020.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2019 Citation: Abstracts from the 100th meeting of the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases. Available electronically at www.crwad.org.