Report from the WIMANET Summer School

The 2024 Summer School - a full success for students and teachers alike

The beginning of September is usually associated with the new primary school year in Czechia. However, there was also a very different school starting in the first week of September 2024 at the field station Mohelenský mlýn organised within the COST Action CA22108 WIMANET framework. 22 students from eight European countries and eight teachers from European countries, China and the USA (San Francisco) came to this isolated location situated in a deep river valley surrounded by gorgeous nature to join the first WIMANET Summer School. Anyhow, it was more important that the teachers were leading experts in the field of wildlife malaria research and the students were highly motivated to improve their expertise.
The scope of the school was broad and covered various aspects of biology of blood parasites and their insect vectors. Excellent talks of teachers were followed by hands-on lectures where students obtained and practiced new skills. The teachers disseminated a wide range of practical and theoretical knowledge from bird catching, parasite detection in blood smears, catching, dissection and identification of insect vectors, to handling of parasite DNA sequences and whole parasite-host community analyses. After the training, students worked in small groups on individual problems that were inspired by the real scientific projects of teachers. The training was obviously successful – students swiftly and flawlessly solved all the problems.

The Summer School location was optimal for catching the birds and insects, and some individuals were even found infected by blood parasites. Moreover, the new samples were nicely complemented by representative samples of parasites and vectors kindly brought by the teachers. On the other hand, the Summer School lectures and practices required a large amount of material and instruments (including for example microscopes) that had to be transported to the field station. Luckily thanks to the cooperation of the local organisers, teachers, and a brave bus driver the challenge was fearlessly faced, and all necessary equipment was successfully collected and transported. The local restaurant U Staňků in the nearby town Mohelno showed a perfect service and provided lunches based on the local tradition of Czech village cooking. The first days of September were surprisingly sunny and warm which resulted in nice swims in the former mill race filled with cold deep water. Obviously, the standard was set rather high for the organisers of the next WIMANET Summer Schools. Luckily a strong team from Lithuania is willing to continue and organise the next Summer School, which will be more specialised and targeting microscopy techniques.
The local Summer School organisation was based on a long-term cooperation of the Faculty of Science of the Charles University and the Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Science, who enjoy organising shared teaching and scientific projects. However, the Summer School organisation and smooth running would not be possible without the international cooperation of the extraordinary friendly and helpful community of people interested in wildlife malaria.

All resources from the summer school can be found here.