Recipient Organization
UNIV OF MARYLAND
(N/A)
COLLEGE PARK,MD 20742
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
This conference grant proposal is of relevance to the Diseases of Agricultural Animals Program Priority Area (A1221) and is to support a veterinary virology themed satellite symposium that will take place June 24th 2024, at the American Society for Virology (ASV) annual meeting held at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, hosted by The Ohio State University. The ASV annual meeting is the primary virology meeting in North America, attracting over 1,700 individuals annually, and it is vital that individuals studying animal viruses are well-represented. Moreover, the last ASV veterinary virology satellite symposium was held in 2021, and since then, there have been several outbreaks of animal viruses of severe economic consequence to agricultural productivity. It is therefore timely to host another symposium with a veterinary virology theme. Briefly, there will be six talks from experts in cattle, equine, swine, poultry, and wildlife viruses, who represent academic, government, and industry labs undertaking research on fundamental virology, vaccinology, epidemiology, and surveillance. The goal is to bring together scientists that work on animal viruses so that they can participate in an interactive meeting, hear cutting-edge information from experts, and share questions, ideas, tools and technologies. The attendees will include students, postdoctoral researchers, mid-career and senior scientists. The symposium will synergize collaborations, stimulate future research avenues, showcase the diversity of career opportunities available to virology researchers in the agriculture sector, and strengthen links between ASV and other associations that will benefit US agricultural research in the long-term.
Animal Health Component
40%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
60%
Applied
40%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The American Society for Virology (ASV) was founded in 1981 at a meeting of some 40 virologists. Since then, the societyhas grown and the annual meeting now attracts over 1,700 attendees in person, from across the US, as well as internationally. As the society expanded, so too did the scope of the virology it represents, and it is now formed of members conducting research on human, animal, plant, invertebrate, and prokaryotic viruses. To reflect this diverse membership, the ASV has a series of Councilors, who are elected to represent the various sub-disciplines. Given the importance of animal viral diseases to the US, and globally, the ASV has a Councilor for Animal Virology, and a Councilor for Veterinary/Zoonotic Virology.The ASV community meets each year at the annual meeting, which is more than 4 full days long. The meeting also includes satellite symposia that precede the opening session. These preconference symposia provide an opportunity for virologists attending the meeting to gather to discuss a more focused theme or topic. In recent years, the ASV has held satellite symposia on veterinary virology in 2015, 2017, and 2021. These events have been well attended and well received. Following these successes, another veterinary virology satellite symposium will take place this year, on June 24th 2024, prior to the main meeting, scheduled from June 24th-28th 2024 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, and hosted by The Ohio State University. The satellite is being organized by Dr Andrew Broadbent, who is the ASV Councilor for Veterinary/Zoonotic Virology.The goal of the veterinary virology satellite symposium is to bring together members of the American Society for Virology (ASV) community that work on animal viral diseases so they can participate in an interactive meeting, hear cutting-edge information from experts in the field, and share questions, ideas, tools, and technologies. The attendees will include early career scientists such as students and postdoctoral researchers, as well as mid-career and senior scientists, and the meeting will synergize collaborations and stimulate future avenues of research.In 2023, the ASV hosted a veterinary virology lunch at the annual meeting to get input from the community and decide the theme of the 2024 veterinary virology satellite symposium. After some discussion, it was decided that the theme should be broad enough to encompass those working on non-zoonotic viral diseases, those working in the One Health arena, and those working on vaccine development. There was also interest in having speakers from industry and government in addition to academia. As a result of these discussions, the 2024 symposium title is "A Veterinary Virapalooza: Improving the Control of Viral Diseases of Animals", and the goal is to highlight that improving the control of animal viral diseases requires an integrated, holistic approach involving academia, government, and industry labs undertaking research on basic virology, vaccinology, epidemiology, and surveillance.
Project Methods
The program includes three sessions: one on fundamental research, one on applied research/vaccine development, and one on epidemiology and surveillance. There will be two talks per session with 45 minutes allocated per speaker (35 minutes per talk and 10 minutes of questions and discussion), as well as a 30-minute coffee break, and a 1-hour lunch break that will provide opportunity for networking (Figure 1). All six speakers have confirmed their attendance, and all are world-leading experts in their field. They represent academia, government and industry labs, and they are at different stages in their career. Moreover, gender balance has been considered, and three of the speakers self-identify as female, and three as male.The exact titles of the talks are still to be determined, and Dr Broadbent will work with each speaker to finalize their titles in March; however, the research topic that each speaker will cover has already been agreed upon. Briefly, after opening remarks from Dr Broadbent, Dr Nicola Stonehouse (Professor, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, UK) will speak on foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) replication strategies. Dr Stonehouse is a world expert in how picornaviruses such as FMDV replicate in cells, and how the virus polymerase enzyme interacts with the RNA genome. Her lab recently published several studies on this topic in the Journal of Virology, Journal of General Virology, and PLoS Pathogens that will be covered in her talk. Next, Dr Colin Parrish (Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University) will speak on the characterization of virus-antibody interactions, and the divergent evolution of H3N8 influenza viruses in dogs and horses. Dr Parrish has recently published several studies in these areasthat will be discussed. These two talks will be part of the Fundamental Virology session, which will highlight that an understanding of the basic replication mechanisms of viruses, and viral interactions with antibodies, are essential for devising future control strategies against viral diseases. The second session (Applied Research/Vaccine Development) will highlight how fundamental virological research can be applied to produce products, and Dr Douglas Glaude (Senior Scientist, Foreign Animal Disease Research, National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), USDA, Manhattan, KS) will speak on his lab's work to develop vaccines against African swine fever virus (ASFV). Dr Glaude developed the first commercially produced live attenuated vaccine against ASFV, and he received the Arthur S. Flemming award in recognition of this achievement. The session will be capped off with a talk from Dr Claudia Osorio (Associate Advisor, Elanco Animal Health US Inc.) who will speak about how licensed vaccines are implemented in the poultry industry. In addition, Dr Osorio will comment on career opportunities for virology researchers within the poultry vaccine industry. She is also the President elect of the AAAP, and will speak about the benefits of this Association. This will strengthen links with ASV. The final session will be on Epidemiology and Surveillance. The first talk will be from Dr Erica Spackman (Acting Research Leader, Exotic and Emerging Avian Viral Diseases Research, Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL), ARS, USDA, Athens, GA) who will give an overview on the H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in wild birds and poultry, and the second talk will be from Dr Andrew Bowman (Associate Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH) who will speak about SARS-CoV-2 in white-tailed deer, which is the subject of several of his recent publications. The satellite symposia are advertised on the website for the meeting at https://asv.org/asv2024/scientific-program/#satellites. The satellites have also been advertised in the ASV President's letter (November), the Secretary-Treasurer's letter (January) and will be promoted on social media. In addition, ASV has a relationship with Microbe.TV (host of This Week in Virology), which in public service announcements will be encouraging people to sign up for the satellites over the next couple of months. Five satellite symposia will occur at the ASV meeting simultaneously, with the other satellite symposia being on invertebrate virology, bat virology, virology in a global society, and virology funding opportunities. Conferences attendees can register to attend the satellite symposia at the time they register for the main meeting for a cost of $100.