The 4th International Online Conference on Animals
The 4th International Online Conference on Animals
Part of the International Online Conference on Animals series
Event's Timezone: Central European Time
6 November 2025
4 December 2025
13 March 2026
Aquatic Animals, Wildlife, Zoo Animals, One Health, Sustainable, Environment
The IOCAN 2026 is now OPEN for Abstract Submission and Registration.
Instruction for authors are available online.
Submit your abstracts HERE.
For any inquiries, please contact us at: iocan2026@mdpi.com
Welcome from the Chairs
We are delighted to announce the 4th International Online Conference on Animals (IOCAN2026), organized by MDPI's open access journal Animals (ISSN: 2076-2615; Impact Factor: 2.7). This year's conference will be held online from 17 to 19 March 2026.
On behalf of the Conference Chairs of IOCAN 2026, we invite you to participate in this significant event. This conference offers a unique opportunity for animal scientists globally to share their latest research, foster communication, and collaboratively address the pressing challenges animals face, such as declining genetic diversity, climate change, pollution, and intensive production systems. As an online event, you can conveniently participate from anywhere, eliminating the need for travel.
S2. One health: Improve Disease Manifestation and Management in Animals, Humans, and the Environment;
S3. Sustainable Animal Nutrition;
S4. Animal Genetics and Genomics;
S5. Environmental Challenges to Animals and Precision Livestock Farming;
S6. Animal Physiology, Reproduction, and Sustainable Animal Production;
S7. Aquatic Animals.
We encourage you to join the global discussion on how we can better care for animals. This is an event you will not want to miss!
Kind regards,
Conference Chairs
Prof. Dr. Clive J. C. Phillips, Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute, Australia;
Prof. Dr. Colin G. Scanes, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, USA;
Prof. Dr. Michael Hässig, University of Zürich, Switzerland.
Event Chairs
Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute, Kent St., Bentley, Australia; Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Kreutzwaldi, Estonia
Clive Phillips was Australia’s first Professor of Animal Welfare, at the University of Queensland, and foundation director of the Centre for Animal Welfare and Ethics. His PhD focused on dairy cow nutrition and behaviour. He was previously a lecturer at the Universities of Cambridge and Wales. He has authored about 400 scientific journal articles on the welfare of farm, zoo and companion animals, animal nutrition, transport and production. His books include Principles of Cattle Production, The Animal Trade and The Welfare of Animals - the Silent Majority. He recently co-edited the Routledge Handbook in Animal Welfare. Clive chairs the Queensland and Western Australian Governments’ Animal Welfare Boards, is editor-in-chief of the journal Animals and Springer’s Animal Welfare book series. His interview series, ‘Conversations with Clive’ can be found at https://tinybeamfund.org/Conversations-With-Clive
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Milwaukee, USA
Colin Scanes was educated in the UK - B.Sc (1st class honours), D.Sc. (University of Hull), Ph.D. (University of Wales). He has published 21 books, 108 reviews/chapters, & 304 refereed papers. He has held faculty/administrative positions at the University of Leeds (UK), Rutgers University (professor/department chair), Iowa State University (professor/executive associate dean), Mississippi State University (professor/Vice president research) and University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (professor/vice chancellor research). He is presently president (Scanes Technology & Research llc. consulting for industry, NGOs and governments). He has received awards for teaching, research and contributions to agriculture (e.g. Honorary doctorate, University for Agriculture, Krakow).
Department for Farm Animals, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Michael Hässig was a professor at Vetsuisse Faculty, the University of Zurich. His main scientific interests are the etiology of bovine abortion, especially infectious etiology, basics on immunology related to abortion and the perinatal time, epidemiological studies and herd problems. Personal additional scientific projects include influence of NIR on bovine health; adverse effects after vaccination; GIS in clinical epidemiology. He is an Expert to the federal commission of the parliament for animal protection, is the Section Editor-in-Chief of "Animal Physiology" in Animals. He has authored about 268 publications and published 54 scientific journal articles as the first author.
Session Chairs
Prof. Dr. Colin G. Scanes
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Milwaukee, USA
Colin Scanes was educated in the UK - B.Sc (1st class honours), D.Sc. (University of Hull), Ph.D. (University of Wales). He has published 21 books, 108 reviews/chapters, & 304 refereed papers. He has held faculty/administrative positions at the University of Leeds (UK), Rutgers University (professor/department chair), Iowa State University (professor/executive associate dean), Mississippi State University (professor/Vice president research) and University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (professor/vice chancellor research). He is presently president (Scanes Technology & Research llc. consulting for industry, NGOs and governments). He has received awards for teaching, research and contributions to agriculture (e.g. Honorary doctorate, University for Agriculture, Krakow).
Prof. Dr. Michael Hässig
Department for Farm Animals, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Michael Hässig was a professor at Vetsuisse Faculty, the University of Zurich. His main scientific interests are the etiology of bovine abortion, especially infectious etiology, basics on immunology related to abortion and the perinatal time, epidemiological studies and herd problems. Personal additional scientific projects include influence of NIR on bovine health; adverse effects after vaccination; GIS in clinical epidemiology. He is member mof the state commission of the state of Zurich for animal protection and animal epidemics. He is the Section Editor-in-Chief of "Animal Physiology" in Animals. He has authored about 271 publications and published 57scientific journal articles as the first author.
Dr. Elisabete Matos
CiiEM - Egas Moniz Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Egas Moniz School of Health and Science, Portugal
With a degree in Marine Biology from the University of Lisbon, I’ve started my career as a production manager for a semi-intensive aquaculture unit for European seabass and gilthead seabream in the Algarve. I moved to Faro in 2008 to proceed with my PhD studies (in Aquaculture – Nutrition) at the University of Algarve, doing research on the modulation of fish quality through a nutritional approach. In 2012 I joined the aquaculture department of Sorgal S.A. as part of the technical team, before being invited to develop the Soja de Portugal group's Innovation Department in 2014. In 2020 I joined B2E, building the CoLAB for its first three years of successful activity. In 2023 I joined Egas Moniz School of Health & Science as Assistant Professor and coordinator of the new Masters in Sustainable Aquaculture.
Professor Andrea Pezzuolo
Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, Legnaro, PD, Italy
Andrea Pezzuolo, is a Associate Professor at the University of Padova with wide expertise in Biosystems Engineering, Advanced Livestock Systems and Precision Livestock Farming technologies. He's a member of the editorial board of 10 scientific journals. In the last 10 years, coordinated/participated in several projects financed both from EU and from national funding. He supervised and is still supervising several PhD, MSc, and BSc students in these research areas.
Event Committee
Animal Welfare Program, Institute for Food and Agriculture Research and Technology (IRTA), Monells, 17121 Girona, Spain
pig welfare; damaging behaviour (tail, ear biting); sustainable pig production; precision farming and welfare
Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Science, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy
amphibian; reptiles; evolution; cytogenetics; morphology; phylogenetics; biogeography
Centre de Sant Carles de la Ràpita (IRTA-SCR), Institut de Recerca i Tecnologìa Agroalimentaries (IRTA), Spain
Dr Gisbert is a senior researcher and head of the Aquaculture Program of the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA) owned by the Government of Catalonia assigned to the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food. The mission of the Aquaculture Program is to contribute to modernising, improving, boosting competitiveness, and fostering sustainable development in the sector of aquaculture, while also contributing to food safety and safe processing of foodstuffs and in general enhancing the health and well-being of the population. Dr Gisbert has a Ph in Biological Sciences by the University of Barcelona, and a master’s in science in Aquaculture by the same Spanish University. After completing his PhD on Siberian sturgeon larviculture, he moved to the United States where he did first postdoctoral research at the University of California (Davis) with a Fulbright Grant, and then, he came back in 2002 to Europe for a second postdoctoral stage at the Ifremer in Brest thanks to a Marie Sklodoswka-Curie fellowship. In 2004, he was hired by IRTA where he has pursued his scientific career. Since then, he has been working on the interface between the academia and the industry focused his research on fish larval nutrition, functional feeds for on-growing fish stages, and recently he approached with his team the use of sustainable farming systems like aquaponics or inland IMTA models. From a scientific point of view, Dr Gisbert has published more than 270 scientific manuscripts (h-index = 45), supervised several PhD thesis and lead several national research projects and participated in other EU ones. With the support of the GFCM - FAO and Catalan Government, E. Gisbert is the responsible for the Mediterranean Restorative Aquaculture Demostrative Centre, a hub on innovation, transfer and training on restorative aquaculture.
fish; nutrition; digestive physiology; functional feeds
Department of Animal Science, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran
Prof. Alireza Seidavi is a famous scientist who is actively engaged in poultry farming and other animal industries. He started scientific and research career in 1999 and now is in charge of Director of Research and Technology, Islamic Azad University, Rasht Branch, Rasht, Iran. He graduated 53 Msc and 16 PhD students as supervisor, and also 33 Msc and 12 PhD students as advisor. Prof. Seidavi is reviewed 146 MSc and 45 PhD thesis as reviewer. He is chief editor of "Iranian Journal of Applied Animal Science", a famous journal indexed in Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI, Web of Science, Q4), Scopus (Q3) etc. Dr Seidavi is one of World Top 1% of Scientists in 2023 and 2024. Moreover, Prof. Alireza Seidavi is ranked in Stanford University study of the world's top 2% of scientists in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. He is winner of awards of Iran Year Book from President of Islamic Republic of Iran for "Bioavailability of Nutrients for Animals: Amino Acids, Minerals and Vitamins", 2005, Iran Elected Researcher from President of Islamic Republic of Iran in 2008 and 2012, Excellent Paper Award from the Japanese Society of Animal Science and Wiley Inc., for the article published in Animal Science Journal in 2019, Top Reviewer in Publons' global Peer Review Awards, 2017-2018, and 2018-2019, Publons, Clarivate Analytics, Elected Researcher of Islamic Azad University, 2019, Guilan Province Elected Researcher from Governor of Guilan Province in 2004, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022; Elected Author/Translator of University of Tehran etc. He published 649 papers (including 326 Scopus indexed papers), and 29 books/book chapters. Prof. Seidavi is best known for his work in Poultry Science, especially for Poultry Nutrition and click here (https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=23768458600#top) and (https://publons.com/researcher/1493213/alireaza-seidavi/) for the full CV.
poultry nutrition; animal science; silkworm
School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Dr. Abdul Shakoor Chaudhry holds a PhD from Cambridge University and works as a Senior Lecturer at Newcastle University. Over the past 30 years, Dr. Chaudhry has completed numerous research, outreach & training projects of great significance. He has supervised the successful completion of many PhD and Post-doctoral researchers from 16 countries of most continents. He has focused on teaching & research in Animal Nutrition, Food Quality, Gut Health & the Environment. Dr. Chaudhry leads or co-coordinates International funded projects in the fields of Farm Animal Production, Water Quality & Aquatic Life by involving novel techniques. He has published over 300 articles in scientific journals, conference proceedings and co-edited books. He has achieved 3575 citations, 33 h-index and 72 i10-index on Google Scholar and around 86000 reads on ResearchGate. Dr. Chaudhry regularly delivers invited or plenary talks and keynotes and Chairs scientific sessions at many national and international conferences. Dr. Chaudhry connects with public dissemination events through electronic & print media about his research and outreach. He is a Certified Animal Scientist (RSB), Fellow Cambridge Philosophical Society, Fellow Higher Education Academy, Fellow Cambridge Commonwealth Society, Professional Standards Advisor, PSF and Academic Advisor, Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. Also, he has served as an elected Council of the British Society of Animal Science (BSAS) and Chair BSAS-Academia Association. He is an editor of some reputable Journals while he reviews research articles, grant proposals & teaching programmes for different agencies. Dr. Chaudhry has served as a Senior Tutor, Chair Board of Examiners & Chair PEC Committee. He has examined many PhD, MSc & UG programmes at multiple universities in the UK & abroad.
sustainable feeds & food quality; non invasive methods; climate change; ruminants, poultry & fish; water pollution & aquatic life; global collaboration & training
Center for Species Survival, Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Front Royal, USA
Nucharin Songsasen is the Center Head of the Center for Species Survival. She joined the Smithsonian in 2002 when offered the opportunity to study the reproductive biology of domestic and wild carnivores. Over the years, she built the Global Canid Conservation Program and expanded this conservation and research initiative from a laboratory setting to field conservation in range countries, including Brazil and Thailand. Nucharin is a leading expert in the field of canid reproductive biology. Research conducted in her laboratory focuses on developing innovative technologies to rescuing valuable genetics from wild canids and felids, while improving human reproductive health. In addition to reproductive research, she has collaborated with SCBI scientists and developed partnerships with national and international governmental and non-governmental organizations to address many threats to the sustainability of wild canids, including the maned wolf, dhole, red wolf and African painted dog, living in zoos or the wild. She also led the collaboration with USGS’s Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in studying the reproductive biology and endocrinology of the whooping crane and identifying the causes of poor reproduction in this endangered species. Nucharin has adjunct appointments at the Cornell University and George Mason University. She is also a member of the IUCN’s Canid Specialist Group (CSG), the coordinator of CSG’s Dhole Working Group and the Maned wolf Species Survival Plan (MWSSP) as well as Reproductive Advisor to the Canid Taxon Advisory Group. Nucharin received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the Kasetsart University in Thailand, and Master of Science and doctoral degrees from the University of Guelph in Canada.
assisted reproductive technology; ovarian follicle development; reproductive endocrinology; wildlife conservation; cryopreservation
Key Laboratory of Aquatic Nutrition and Feed Science of Jiangsu Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, No. 1 Weigang Road, Nanjing 210095, China
Xiangfei Li, Ph. D., professor in the Department of Aquaculture in Nanjing Agricultural University in China, research interest: aquaculture nutrition and feed science. Currently, has presided over several projects, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities in China, etc. Has published more than 60 research articles in international journals as the first and/or corresponding author, and is the reviewer of several academic journals, like Aquaculture, British Journal of Nutrition, Fish Physiology and Biochemistry, Aquaculture Nutrition, etc.
aquaculture nutrition; feed science; intermediary metabolism; mitochondria; molecular biology
Aquatic One Health Research Center (ARCUS), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC), Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Isabel Bandín is an Associate Professor of Microbiology at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC, Spain), where she has built her academic career specializing in fish pathology. Following her doctoral research—carried out at the USC and the Marine Laboratory in Scotland—she undertook postdoctoral studies at Wageningen University (Netherlands). In recent years, her work has primarily focused on the Nervous Necrosis Virus (NNV, genus Betanodavirus), addressing its epidemiology, identifying viral virulence factors, and assessing its adaptability to climate change. She is recognized as one of the leading experts on this virus, and as of this year, she is a member of the Nodavirdae Study Group within the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). Additionally, she has contributed to vaccine development and currently coordinates Work Package 3: “PREVENTION through innovative VACCINES for EU aquaculture,” within the Europe Horizon consortium “Curing EU aquaculture by co-creating health and welfare innovtions” (Cure4Aqua). She is the author of more than 100 scientific publications in high-impact journals, has participated in 16 research projects, and led 6 of them. She serves on the Editorial Board of Animals and has been a member of the Advisory Board of Archives of Virology. She also co-edited a special issue in Viruses dedicated to fish viruses and another in Pathogens on NNV, alongside Dr. Toffan. For over a decade—until 2022—she was the academic coordinator at USC of the Galician interuniversity Master’s program in Aquaculture, and since 2022, she has been its General Coordinator.
fish virology; virulence mechanisms; phylogenetics; diagnostic techniques
Sessions
2. One health: Improve Disease Manifestation and Management in Animals, Humans, and the Environment
3. Sustainable Animal Nutrition
4. Animal Genetics and Genomics
5. Environmental Challenges to Animals and Precision Livestock Farming
6. Animal Physiology, Reproduction, and Sustainable Animal Production
7. Aquatic Animals
Registration
The registration for IOCAN 2026 will be free of charge! The registration includes attendance to all conference sessions.
If you are registering several people under the same registration, please do not use the same email address for each person, but their individual university email addresses. Thank you for your understanding.
Please note that the submission and registration are two separate parts. Only scholars who registered can receive a link to access the conference live streaming. The deadline for registration is 13 March 2026.
Instructions for Authors
IOCAN 2026 will accept abstracts only. The accepted abstracts will be available online on Sciforum.net during and after the conference.
1. Deadline for abstract submission: 6 November 2025.
2. Abstract acceptance notification: 4 December 2025.
You will be notified of the acceptance of an oral/poster presentation in a separate email.
Abstract submissions should be completed online by registering with www.sciforum.net and using the "Submit Abstract" function once logged into the system. No physical template is necessary.
1. The abstract structure should include the introduction, methods, results, and conclusions sections of about 200–300 words in length.
2. All abstracts should be submitted and presented in clear, publication-ready English with accurate grammar and spelling.
3. You may submit multiple abstracts. However, only one abstract will be selected for oral presentation.
4. The abstracts submitted to this conference must be original and novel, without prior publication in any journals or it will not be accepted to this conference.
Detailed Requirements:
1. The submitting author must ensure that all co-authors are aware of the contents of the abstract.
2. Please select only one presenter for each submission. If you would like to change the presenter after submission, please email us accordingly.
Note: We only accept live presentations.
The slot for the oral presentation is 15 mins. We advise that your presentation lasts for a maximum of 12 mins, leaving at least 3 mins for the Q&A session.
Authors are encouraged to prepare a presentation in PowerPoint or similar software, to be displayed online along with the abstract. Slides, if available, will be displayed directly on the website using the proprietary slide viewer at Sciforum.net. Slides can be prepared in exactly the same way as for any traditional conference where research results are presented. Slides should be converted to PDF format prior to submission so that they can be converted for online display.
- Size in pixel: 1080 width x 1536 height–portrait orientation.
- Size in cm: 38,1 width x 54,2 height–portrait orientation.
- Font size: ≥16.
- Examples of successful submissions can be viewed here at the following links: (1), (2), (3).
- You can use our free template to create your poster.
It is the author's responsibility to identify and declare any personal circumstances or interests that may be perceived as inappropriately influencing the representation or interpretation of clinical research. If there is no conflict, please state "The authors declare no conflicts of interest." This should be conveyed in a separate "Conflict of Interest" statement preceding the "Acknowledgments" and "References" sections at the end of the manuscript. Any financial support for the study must be fully disclosed in the "Acknowledgments" section.
MDPI, the publisher of the Sciforum.net platform, is an open access publisher. We believe authors should retain the copyright to their scholarly works. Hence, by submitting an abstract to this conference, you retain the copyright to the work, but you grant MDPI the non-exclusive right to publish this abstract online on the Sciforum.net platform. This means you can easily submit your full paper (with the abstract) to any scientific journal at a later stage and transfer the copyright to its publisher if required.
Publication Opportunity
1. Animals Journal Publication
Participants in this conference are cordially invited to contribute a full manuscript to the conference's Special Issue (to be updated), published in Animals (ISSN: 2076-2615, Impact Factor 2.7), with a 10% discount on the publication fee. Please note, if you have IOAP/association discounts, conference discounts will be combined with IOAP/association discounts. Conference discounts cannot be combined with reviewer vouchers. All submitted papers will undergo MDPI’s standard peer-review procedure. The abstracts should be cited and noted on the first page of the paper.
2. Proceeding Paper Publication
All accepted abstracts will be published in the conference report of the 4th International Online Conference on Animals in the Biology and Life Sciences Forum (ISSN: 2673-9976); if you wish to publish an extended proceeding paper (4-8 pages), please submit it to the same journal after the conference.
Authors are asked to disclose that it is a proceeding paper of the IOCAN 2026 conference paper in their cover letter. Carefully read the rules outlined in the 'Instructions for Authors' on the journal’s website and ensure that your submission adheres to these guidelines.
Proceedings submission deadline: 5 May 2026
Manuscripts for the proceedings issue must be formatted as follows:
Title;
Full author names;
Affiliations (including full postal address) and authors' e-mail addresses;
Abstract;
Keywords;
Introduction;
Methods;
Results and Discussion;
Conclusions;
Acknowledgements;
References.
Please click HERE to submit your proceeding paper to the Biology and Life Sciences Forum.
BLSF proceedings template.docx
Event Awards
To acknowledge the support of the conference's esteemed authors and recognize their outstanding scientific accomplishments, we are pleased to announce that the conference will provide six awards including Best Oral Presentation Awards and Best Poster Awards.
The Awards
Number of Awards Available: 6
The Best Oral Presentation Awards are given to the submission judged to make the most significant oral contribution to the conference.
The Best Poster Awards are given to the submission judged to make the most significant and interesting poster for the conference.
There will be six winners selected for these awards. The winner will receive a certificate and 200 CHF each.
Sponsors and Partners
For information regarding sponsorship and exhibition opportunities, please click here.
Organizers
Media Partners
