Joint research into bovine ephemeral fever involving China and Australia was instigated in response to a massive epidemic in 1983. At the conclusion of the research the first international symposium on bovine ephemeral fever and related rhabdoviruses was held in Beijing. These proceedings cover many aspects of this group of diseases: epidemiology and vectors; pathology, pathogenesis and diagnosis; taxonomy, morphology and molecular biology; and vaccines and antigenic variation.