2025 Workshop: Paneveggio, Italy

Overview

Hosted by the Fondazione Edmund Mach (FEM), this workshop focused on issues of scale—from field ecology to policy relevance. The meeting was designed to be highly interactive, with a loose schedule to stimulate discussion and encourage attendees to propose or conjecture new ideas regarding rodent-borne diseases.

  • Dates: 26 – 28 [Month], 2025
  • Venue: Parco Naturale di Paneveggio, Trentino, Italy
  • Local Host: Annapaola Rizzoli

Scientific Programme

Day 1: Monday, 26th

  • Arrival & Welcome: Lunch and introductory walk. Welcome remarks by Annapaola Rizzoli and the Park Director. Workshop introduction by Sagan Friant and Peter Hudson.
  • Framing Session: One Idea - Issues of Scale from field to policy relevance.
  • Session 1: Rodent studies & Disease in the Alps
    • Valentina Tagliapietra (FEM): 25 years of rodent data: a multi-scale approach
    • Sarah Perkins (Cardiff)
    • Giulia Ferrari (FEM)
    • Francesca Dagostin (FEM)
    • Session concluded with a group discussion.

Day 2: Tuesday, 27th

  • Session 2: The Ecology of Rodent-Borne Infections: Local Scales
    • Heikki Henttonen: Direct transmission: Puumala transmission ecology
    • Janine Mistrick: Spatial Overlap and Shedding: Drivers of Puumala hantavirus transmission
    • Peter Hudson: Reservoirs - rodents, bats and infections
    • Andy Dobson: Models for macroparasites and microbiome
    • Lina Moses: Rodent Population Indicators for RBZD Risk Assessment and Response
  • 10:30 | Coffee & Discussion
  • Session 3: Living with rodents: Spillover and Synanthropy
    • Nicola Ferrari: 15 years of parasitological investigations in Italian squirrels: a quick resume of the trip
    • Sagan Friant: Risks from wildmeat
    • Isabella Cattadori: Diet-driven bat viral shedding and consequences for pathogen spillover
    • Christina Harden: Rats everywhere all at once - Participatory Modelling of Lassa Fever
  • 13:00 | Lunch and Hike

Day 3: Wednesday, 28th

  • Session 4: Scaling ecological research: examples from Lassa and other RBZDs
    • David Redding: Climate sensitivity is widespread but uneven across rodent-borne zoonoses
    • David Simons: Production and use of an Arenavirus and Hantavirus host-pathogen database
    • Abi Smith: Arenavirus specificity in M. natalensis subtaxa: The range edge of Lassa
    • Natalie Imirzian: Towards a general rodent-borne disease model
    • Gregory Milne: Modelling climate-driven population and infection dynamics of Mastomys natalensis
    • Sagan Friant & Dave Redding: Cross Scale Dynamics of Lassa in Human-Driven Ecosystems
  • 10:30 | Coffee & Discussion
  • Session 5: Synthesis
    • Jane Qui: Science Communication
    • Peter Hudson: Takeaways & Interventions

Outputs

The primary outcome of the Paneveggio workshop was the continued strengthening of ongoing collaborative research networks among the international attendees, driving forward interdisciplinary projects across ecology, epidemiology, and anthropology.

Group photograph from Italy Meeting