Hello Robin, Could you please post this the the list serve? Please let me know if it is too long and I can edit it. I would like to emphasize that we are looking for manuscripts dealing with marine species' welfare as well as terrestrial and fresh water species. Thank you! Kevin *Project Title: *Special Supplement to JWD: Advances and Improvements in Wildlife Health and Welfare *Project Contact and Special Supplement Editor: *Kevin Castle, Secretary, American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians (aawvsecretary@gmail.com) *Primary Collaborators and Associate Editors: * Peregrine Wolff, President AAWV Sonia Hernandez, Vice-President, AAWV Colin Gillin, Past President, AAWV Anne Justice-Allen, WDA-WVS Nadine Lamberski, WDA-WVS Dan Mulcahy, Research Wildlife Veterinarian, United States Geological Survey, Alaska The American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians and the WDA Wildlife Veterinary Section are soliciting manuscripts for a special supplement to the Journal of Wildlife Diseases (JWD), titled: *Advances and Improvements in Wildlife Health and Welfare*. As a recognized expert in working with and improving the health and welfare of free-ranging wildlife, *we would like to invite you to submit a manuscript* to be considered for inclusion in this Special Supplement to JWD. Animal welfare has become an increasingly important topic of discussion among wildlife disease investigators, managers and the public at large. Recent changes to legislation and regulation dictate that wildlife research must adhere to the highest standards of animal care, yet most of the welfare standards available have been extrapolated from domestic species. Recent studies have been devoted to developing and implementing advances in techniques that specifically address the impact(s) of research and management of wildlife species. This Special Supplement will collect the most relevant work, from a special session at the 2014 WDA Annual International Conference, and through direct author solicitation, and make it widely available to the WDA readership. *Proposed outcomes: * The Special Supplement, to be published in October 2015, will serve as a cohesive reference of real-world, cutting edge guidance and techniques from leading experts in the field on how to identify and ameliorate impacts to wildlife health and welfare during all phases of capture and handling. The publication that results from this work will be of benefit to all WDA members and wildlife professionals in all countries who deal with wildlife health and welfare issues. The papers included in the publication will provide detailed information that is not available through the WDA conference proceedings, and the Supplement will be a valuable resource for Institutional Animal Care and Use committees and others who are tasked with making decisions about wildlife welfare. *Timeline:* WDA Conference (Wildlife Welfare Session) July 2014 Manuscript submission deadline January 15, 2015 Publication and distribution October 2015 *Manuscript Guidelines:* · The submission deadline is *January 15, 2015*. You may send your manuscript now or up until the deadline. Please submit manuscripts or questions to: Dr. Kevin Castle, Special Supplement Editor: aawvsecretary@gmail.com · If you have an idea for a manuscript but are unsure of whether it may be appropriate or not, we encourage authors to send a short abstract or tentative title to the Special Supplement Editor in advance ( aawvsecretary@gmail.com). · Authors interested in presenting a *review* of a particular aspect of wildlife health and welfare are encouraged to contact the Special Supplement Editor to discuss. Formatting, manuscript length, and editorial process will follow JWD guidelines for authors of full-length articles. For specific Instruction to Authors, please click here <http://wildlifedisease.org/wda/Portals/0/JWD_ITAR_6-10-2012.pdf>. Dr. Kevin Castle will oversee the peer-review process with the help of associate editors and subject matter experts. Page charges and open-access charges will be paid through WDA Small Grant Program funds and matching funds obtained by the collaborators listed above. *Authors will not be responsible for page charges, nor for providing open access to the supplement.* Submission will not guarantee acceptance; however, significant consideration will be given to well-written manuscripts based on research that addresses one or more of the following topics in free-ranging wildlife (including fish). Research involving captive animals may be acceptable if it provides information applicable to improving health and welfare of free-ranging wildlife. · Measuring stress or applying methods to relieve/decrease stress · Improvements in field surgical techniques, including placement of marking or monitoring equipment · Improvements or innovation in field anesthetic and anesthetic monitoring protocols o e.g. Benefits of measuring blood gases and other parameters · Assessment and alleviation of pain · Improvements in field euthanasia · Research that tests how animal welfare is impacted during any of the following components of an event: o Pursuit o Capture o Handling/manipulation o Recovery o Transport/release o Post-release · Researcher and public perceptions and expectations regarding wildlife welfare · Defining and measuring a successful handling event (e.g. can post-release mortality inform us of the success of immobilization, or should we really be looking at long-term survival and reproduction?) · Defining costs/benefits of sedation for activities that do not require general anesthesia · Assessing the appropriate level of immediate post-immobilization recovery monitoring (i.e. stay with the animal or leave it?) -- Kevin Castle, DVM, MS AAWV Secretary Wildlife Veterinarian U.S. National Park Service 1201 Oakridge Dr, Suite 200 Fort Collins, CO 80521 970-430-0205