Past experiences have taught health officials that to battle pandemics like West Nile virus, SARS, monkey pox and the potential avian influenza that could rival the 1918 flu pandemic, experts from various fields and backgrounds must communicate clearly to develop a multifaceted, integrated strategy.

For this reason, Cornell University has teamed up with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., to co-host a conference on avian flu to create dialogues among public health, animal health and wildlife management experts from the government and private sector.

The conference, “Critical Dialogues on Avian Influenza: Bringing Together the Public Health, Animal Health and Wildlife Management Communities,” will occur Wednesday, Nov. 30, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. The event will also be Webcast live at http://www.wilsoncenter.org. It is free and open to the public.

With migratory birds spreading the lethal H5N1 avian flu strain throughout Asia and Europe, health officials fear this virus strain may combine with a human flu virus to create a new strain that transmits efficiently from human to human, says Alfonso Torres, director of the Animal Health Diagnostic Center and associate dean for veterinary public policy at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine and one of the conference organizers. At present, based on documented cases since 2004, close to 170 people have contracted the virus from infected poultry but have not passed the infection to other people. Of those human infections, about half of the patients died.

Featuring panelists from government, academia and the private sector, the conference will explore how these communities are addressing current developments in the field while identifying opportunities for and obstacles to more integrated responses.