Final 2026 Program

Thursday, June 4, 2026

4:00-6:00: Registration Desk Open

5:30-7:00: Pizza in the Green

7:00-10:00: Student and Locum mixer

Friday, June 5, 2026

8:15-8:30: Welcome, Land Acknowledgement, Housekeeping

8:30-9:30: Nicholas H. Ogden – R. R. Parker Memorial Lecture

9:30-10:00: Break and Posters

10:00-11:40: Technical Session 1: Emerging threats to animal health

10:00-10:20: Rebecca Nixon - Characterization of the complete mitogenomes of four fleas of black-tailed prairie dogs

10:20-10:40: Sauhard Shrivastava - TRIM5α: Dual-edged sword in bats

10:40-11:00: Jamie Imada – Redesigning Canada’s BSE Surveillance System

11:00-11:20: Erin Leonard - One Health Considerations of Avian Influenza A(H5Nx) in Companion Animals

11:20-11:40: Arkadeb Bhuinya - Non-coding Viral Regulatory Elements drive differential Transcript and Protein expression of SARS-CoV-2 Accessory genes to inhibit antiviral responses

11:40 End of Morning Session

11: 45-1:00: Lunch

1:00-2:20: Technical Session 2: Emerging Threats to Human Health

1:00-1:20: Dawit Wolday – Marburg Virus Hemorrhagic Fever Outbreak in Ethiopia, 2025: Epidemiological, Clinical and Genomic Insights

1:20-1:40: Muhammad Morshed – Hantavirus Outbreak on a Cruise Ship – A Rare Event

1:40-2:00: Becky Anderson – Science Communication, Misinformation, and One Health in Practice: The Role of CAHSS in Zoonotic Disease Communication

2:00-2:20: David Hall – Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Towards Anthrax Risk in Lao PDR

2:20-2:50: Break and Posters

2:50-4:20: Technical Session 3: Emerging Threats to Humans through Plant & Ecosystem Health

2:50-3:20: William T. Lee – Development of a Novel Serological Assay for the Detection of Binding Antibodies Reactive with Oropouche Virus.

3:20-3:40: Mark Nelder – Emergence of Rocky Mountain spotted fever in Ontario, Canada (2025): a One Health perspective

3:40-4:00: Sudheer Kumar Katari – Multi-Omics and Proteome-Wide Investigation with Structural Dynamics Insights into Hemolysin Virulence Proteins in Clinical Burkholderia pseudomallei Isolates

4:00-4:20: Becky Anderson – From Data to Action: CAHSS’ Role in Zoonotic Disease Surveillance in Canada

4:20: Closing Remarks

6:00-: 75th Anniversary Gala Banquet with historical INKY highlights by Drs. Kevin Fonseca, Muhammad Morshed, and others.

Saturday, June 6, 2026

8:25: Welcome to Day 2

8:30-9:30: Samira Mubareka – John Gawoski Memorial Lecture

9:30-10:00: Break

10:00-11:40: Technical Session 4: The interconnectedness of emerging human & agricultural pathogens

10:00-10:20: Katherine Paphitis – After the bite: A descriptive analysis of animal exposure incidents resulting in a human rabies post- exposure prophylaxis recommendation in Ontario (2014-2024)

10:20-10:40: Rita Quintela - Interferon beta specificity in humans and bats contributes to differences in viral replication and tolerance.

10:40-11:00: Kevin Fonseca – Genotypes of Borrelia  burgdorferi from Ixodes ticks collected in Alberta from 2021 to 2024

11:00-11:20: Kevin Siebels – Deep Learning for Mapping Tick Habitat Suitability: Moving Beyond Traditional Machine Learning Approaches

11:20-11:40: Jamie Rothenburger – From Detection to Action: Pathology‑Driven One Health Responses to Wildlife Zoonoses in Canada

11:40-12:20: INCDNCM Business Meeting and AGM

12:20-12:30: Closing Remarks and Thanks

12:30-: Lunch and Excursion to the ROM

POSTERS:

Eduardo Suarez-Lopez - Characterizing the accessory proteins in novel rodent Embecoviruses

Celine Tan - Development of upper respiratory tract 2D cellular models of wildlife and livestock species to study host responses to highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses