Wisent belongs to the most endangered large mammals of Northern Hemisphere because of a bottleneck it went through some 80 years ago, its still low population numbers (about 4200) and shrinking, mostly fragmented natural habitat. Because of extremely high level of inbred the species has low tolerance for diseases. Three main goals in its conservation are: maintenance of the gene pool, protection and proper management of wild herds and prevention of infectious diseases. Conservation of gene pool should be based on controlled breeding of animals in captivity and planned introduction to the wild. In situ population should be managed towards an increase of effective numbers in large populations, and as metapopulation regarding smaller herds. All wisents both in captivity and in the wild should be carefully monitored regarding their health status and routine procedures in case of an incidence of a disease should be elaborated and introduced into the practice. Recently introduced computer simulations are an effective tool helpful in planning the structure and population dynamics of managed wisent in captivity and in the wild.