Advances in Research on Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases
A Special Issue of Viruses (ISSN 1999-4915) belonging to the section "Animal Viruses".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 December 2026 | Viewed by 4696
Editors
Interests: emerging viruses; zoonoses; serology; molecular epidemiology; diagnostics
2. School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Salata No. 3, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: virology; medical microbiology; infectious diseases; public health; TORCH infections
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Emerging and zoonotic diseases represent a significant and growing threat to global health, socio-economic stability, and biodiversity. The increasing incidence of zoonotic spillover events, exemplified by outbreaks of West Nile virus, Ebola virus disease, avian influenza, and the COVID-19 pandemic, underscores the dynamic and complex interactions among humans, animals, and ecosystems.
Multifactorial processes, including climate variability, land-use change, deforestation, wildlife trade, agricultural intensification, and globalization, drive the emergence and re-emergence of pathogens. These factors, when combined, enhance human–animal–environment interfaces, facilitating cross-species transmission of pathogens. As anthropogenic pressures continue to change ecological balances, the likelihood of pathogen intrusion, adaptation, and sustained human-to-human transmission is expected to increase.
In recent years, significant advances have been achieved in the surveillance, detection, and characterization of emerging pathogens. The integration of genomic and metagenomic sequencing and bioinformatics has revolutionized the understanding of pathogen diversity, evolution, and spillover dynamics. Moreover, the adoption of the One Health framework, which links human, animal, and environmental health, has strengthened interdisciplinary collaboration, fostering early detection, evidence-based control measures, and policy development.
Despite these advances, many challenges remain. Surveillance in wildlife and livestock populations remains limited in many regions, data sharing across sectors and borders is inconsistent, and the predictive accuracy for spillover events remains low due to the complexity of host–pathogen–environment interactions.
This Special Issue will focus on all aspects of emerging and zoonotic diseases. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, epidemiology, vector competence and dynamics, mechanisms of disease pathogenesis, virus–host interactions, molecular and genetic determinants of virulence, clinical manifestations, host immune responses, and advancements in diagnostic methods. This issue will also highlight the significance of an integrated multidisciplinary framework (‘One Health’) for the surveillance, prevention, and control of emerging and zoonotic diseases.
Dr. Vladimir Stevanović
Dr. Tatjana Vilibic-Cavlek
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Viruses is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- emerging infectious diseases
- zoonoses
- epidemiology
- pathogenesis
- diagnostics
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