Search

Background In Ghana, the conversion of land to agriculture, especially across the vegetative belt has resulted in fragmented forest landscapes with increased interactions among humans, domestic animals, and wildlife. Methods We investigated viruses in bats and rodents, key reservoir hosts for zoonotic viral pathogens, in a small agricultural community in the vegetation belt of Ghana. We also administered questionnaires among the local community members to learn more about people’s awareness and perceptions of zoonotic disease risks and the environmental factors and types of activities in which they engage that might influence pathogen transmission from wildlife. Results Our study detected the RNA from paramyxoviruses and coronaviruses in rodents and bats, including sequences from novel viruses with unknown zoonotic potential. Samples collected from Epomophorus gambianus bats were significantly more likely to be positive for coronavirus RNA during the rainy season, when higher numbers of young susceptible individuals are present in the population. Almost all community members who responded to the questionnaire reported contact with wildlife, especially bats, rodents, and non-human primates in and around their homes and in the agricultural fields. Over half of the respondents were not aware or did not perceive any zoonotic disease risks associated with close contact with animals, such as harvesting and processing animals for food. To address gaps in awareness and mitigation strategies for pathogen transmission risks, we organized community education campaigns using risk reduction and outreach tools focused around living safely with bats and rodents. Conclusions These findings expand our knowledge of the viruses circulating in bats and rodents in Ghana and of the beliefs, perceptions, and practices that put community members at risk of zoonotic virus spillover through direct and indirect contact with bats and rodents. This study also highlights the importance of community engagement in research and interventions focused on mitigating risk and living safely with wildlife.

Author(s): Bond, Amy; Preston, Eunah; Lane, Jennifer K.; Mazet, Jonna A.K. | Abstract: This visual essay in "The Photographer's Frame" explores One Health, a "collaborative, multisectoral, and trans-disciplinary approach—working at the local, regional, national, and global levels—with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment."

Author(s): Smiley Evans, Tierra; Grange, Zoe; Belkhiria, Jaber; Lane, Jennifer; Genovese, Brooke; Togami, Eri; Mazet, Jonna | Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has unimaginably changed our lives with long-lasting consequences for our society, environment and the global economy. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, is just one of the many pathogens that have already emerged in humans as a result of interactions with wildlife and is only one of the many to come if we do not reduce our impacts on natural systems. While the immediate priority is to tackle the COVID-19 public health emergency, our parallel and long-lasting response must focus on addressing the root causes of pandemics. Human and animal health are inextricably linked with the pathogens they carry and the ecosystems that are shared. The degradation of nature disturbs this delicate balance between microbes, their natural hosts, and environments—driving the emergence of disease.

In an effort to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases in animals and people, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT program funded development of regional, national, and local One Health capacities for early disease detection, rapid response, disease control, and risk reduction. From the outset, the EPT approach was inclusive of social science research methods designed to understand the contexts and behaviors of communities living and working at human-animal-environment interfaces considered high-risk for virus emergence. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, PREDICT behavioral research aimed to identify and assess a range of socio-cultural behaviors that could be influential in zoonotic disease emergence, amplification, and transmission. This broad approach to behavioral risk characterization enabled us to identify and characterize human activities that could be linked to the transmission dynamics of new and emerging viruses. This paper provides a discussion of implementation of a social science approach within a zoonotic surveillance framework. We conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups to better understand the individual- and community-level knowledge, attitudes, and practices that potentially put participants at risk for zoonotic disease transmission from the animals they live and work with, across 6 interface domains. When we asked highly-exposed individuals (ie. bushmeat hunters, wildlife or guano farmers) about the risk they perceived in their occupational activities, most did not perceive it to be risky, whether because it was normalized by years (or generations) of doing such an activity, or due to lack of information about potential risks. Integrating the social sciences allows investigations of the specific human activities that are hypothesized to drive disease emergence, amplification, and transmission, in order to better substantiate behavioral disease drivers, along with the social dimensions of infection and transmission dynamics. Understanding these dynamics is critical to achieving health security--the protection from threats to health-- which requires investments in both collective and individual health security. Involving behavioral sciences into zoonotic disease surveillance allowed us to push toward fuller community integration and engagement and toward dialogue and implementation of recommendations for disease prevention and improved health security.

This study was supported by the Morris Animal Foundation (grant D09ZO-019), whose mission is to advance the science of animal health, and the NOAA Oceans and Human Health Graduate Traineeship Program. Additional support was provided by the Alaska Fisheries Science Center Marine Mammal Laboratory and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. JAH and MH were supported by UKRI-BBSRC awards BBS/E/I/00007030, BBS/E/I/00007037, BBS/E/I/00007038 and BBS/E/I/00007039. Climate change-driven alterations in Arctic environments can influence habitat availability, species distributions and interactions, and the breeding, foraging, and health of marine mammals. Phocine distemper virus (PDV), which has caused extensive mortality in Atlantic seals, was confirmed in sea otters in the North Pacific Ocean in 2004, raising the question of whether reductions in sea ice could increase contact between Arctic and sub-Arctic marine mammals and lead to viral transmission across the Arctic Ocean. Using data on PDV exposure and infection and animal movement in sympatric seal, sea lion, and sea otter species sampled in the North Pacific Ocean from 2001–2016, we investigated the timing of PDV introduction, risk factors associated with PDV emergence, and patterns of transmission following introduction. We identified widespread exposure to and infection with PDV across the North Pacific Ocean beginning in 2003 with a second peak of PDV exposure and infection in 2009; viral transmission across sympatric marine mammal species; and association of PDV exposure and infection with reductions in Arctic sea ice extent. Peaks of PDV exposure and infection following 2003 may reflect additional viral introductions among the diverse marine mammals in the North Pacific Ocean linked to change in Arctic sea ice extent. Publisher PDF

Most human infectious diseases, especially recently emerging pathogens, originate from animals and ongoing disease transmission from animals to people presents a significant global health burden. Recognition of the epidemiologic circumstances involved in zoonotic spillover, amplification and spread of diseases is essential for prioritizing surveillance and predicting future disease emergence risk. We examine the animal hosts and transmission mechanisms involved in spillover of zoonotic viruses to date and discover that viruses with high host plasticity (i.e. taxonomically and ecologically diverse host range) were more likely to amplify viral spillover by secondary human-to-human transmission and have broader geographic spread. Viruses transmitted to humans during practices that facilitate mixing of diverse animal species had significantly higher host plasticity. Our findings suggest that animal-to-human spillover of new viruses that are capable of infecting diverse host species signal emerging disease events with higher pandemic potential in that these viruses are more likely to amplify by human-to-human transmission with spread on a global scale.

Spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) are abundant predators in the Serengeti ecosystem and interact with other species of wild carnivores and domestic animals in ways that could encourage disease transmission. Hyenas also have a unique hierarchical social system that might affect the flow of pathogens. Antibodies to canine distemper virus (CDV), feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), feline panleukopenia virus/canine parvovirus (FPLV/CPV), feline coronavirus/ feline infectious peritonitis virus (FECV/IPV), feline calicivirus (FCV), and feline herpesvirus 1 (FHV1) have been detected in other Serengeti predators, indicating that these viruses are present in the ecosystem. The purpose of this study was to determine whether spotted hyenas also had been infected with these viruses and to assess risk factors for infection. Serum samples were collected between 1993 and 2001 from 119 animals in a single clan for which behavioral data on social structure were available and from 121 hyenas ill several other clans. All animals resided in the Masai Mara National Reserve. Antibodies to CDV, FIV, FPLV/CPV, FECV/FIPV, FCV, and FHV1 were present in 47%, 3.5%, 81%, 36%, 72%, and 0.5% of study hyenas, respectively. Antibody prevalence was greater in adults for FIV and FECV/FIPV, and being a female of high social rank was a risk factor for FIV. Hyenas near human habitation appeared to be at lower risk to have CDV, FIV, and FECV/FIPV antibodies, whereas being near human habitation increased the risk for FPLV/CPV antibodies. Canine (distemper virus and FECV/FIPV antibody prevalence varied considerably over time, whereas FIV, FPLV/CPV, and FCV had a stable, apparently endemic temporal pattern. These results indicate that hyenas might play a role in the ecology of these viruses in the Serengeti ecosystem. The effect of these viruses on hyena health should be further investigated. The lower prevalence of CDV antibody-positive hyenas near human habitation suggests that reservoirs for CDV other than domestic dogs are present in the Serengeti ecosystem.

a rapid situation analysis was carried out to characterize existing disease surveillance systems in animal and public health sectors in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Tanzania and it was found that therewas no formal, routine collaboration between the two sectors. It was further observed that in the two sectors, disease surveillance and reporting starts with the lowest level where officials residing within community are engaged. The new system designed combines the use of participatory and OH approaches with district-based passive(DPS) and community-based active (CAS) surveillance system components promoted to participate in detection of disease events at source. The CAS system is based on use of community-based health reporters (CHRs) to search for and report disease events occurring in animal and human populations in the study areas. Mobile technologies are being employed as the technology enablers. We selected two sites, Ngorongoro (an ecosystem with maximum human-wildlife and domestic animal interactions) and Kagera River Basin (a cross-border ecosystem with twodistricts across theborderbetweenBurundi andTanzania) to test performance of the system.We have piloted and introduced android mobile phones running the EpiCollect and Open data kit (ODK) applications to aid geo-spatial and clinical data capture and transmission from the field to the remote IT servers at the research hubs for storage, analysis, feedback and reporting. Phase I results have proved that the participatory disease surveillance approach in combination with use of mobile technologies are capable of improving early detection and response to disease events particularly in remote hard-to-reach areas. A total of 387 disease events were reported by CHRs between 2011 and 2013. In some cases, reports of disease events submitted by CHRs triggered immediate response from official system making use of them in public health relevant. Phase II of thiswork focuses on integrated disease surveillance combining voice recording, hand-writing recognition,mobile spatial and participatory epidemiology revolutionalizing collection and reporting of disease event data. We also plan to set up a one health disease surveillance resource center that will strengthen regional capacities in designing ‘fit-for-purpose’ technologies to support disease surveillance and response and develop appropriate technology transfer platform to expedite use of mobile phone technologies in disease surveillance.

Sustainable management of landscapes with multiple competing demands such as the Ruaha Landscape is complex due to the diverse preferences and needs of stakeholder groups involved. This study uses conjoint analysis to assess the preferences of representatives from three stakeholder groups—local communities, district government officials, and non-governmental organizations—toward potential solutions of conservation and development tradeoffs facing local communities in the Ruaha Landscape of Tanzania. Results demonstrate that there is little consensus among stakeholders about the best development strategies for the Ruaha region. This analysis suggests a need for incorporating issues deemed important by these various groups into a development strategy that aims to promote conservation of the Ruaha Landscape and improve the livelihood of local communities.

Although the public's interest in oil spills and similar environmental disasters often focus on the plight of injured animals, animal issues are only a very small part of an oil spill response. The dichotomy between the public's and the media's perception of what is important and what many wildlife biologists feel is important for long-term species conservation has led to conflicts and heated exchanges between proponents and opponents of oiled wildlife care. Additionally, some critics believe that there is a competition for funds between wildlife care and wildlife restoration, and that oiled wildlife care is offered up as a solution to pollution's damage to wildlife populations, or as an alternative to prevention. In California the collection, medical care, and rehabilitation of oiled wildlife is part of a comprehensive program for pollution response and provides data needed for planning, prevention and restoration. It is conducted for specific legal, social, political, and biological reasons. Under these circumstances, oiled wildlife care supports species conservation programs, as well as helping to document injury.

Objective—To determine the effects of petroleum exposure on hematologic and clinical biochemical results of mink and to identify variables that may be useful for making management decisions involving sea otters (Enhydra lutris) that have been exposed to oil in their environment. Animals—122 American mink (Mustela vison). Procedures—Mink were exposed once to a slick of oil (Alaskan North Slope crude oil or bunker C fuel oil) on seawater or via low-level contamination of their daily rations. Results—In the acute phase of exposure, petroleum directly affected RBC, WBC, neutrophil, and lymphocyte counts, fibrinogen, sodium, calcium, creatinine, total protein, and cholesterol concentrations, and alanine transaminase, creatine kinase, alkaline phosphatase, and γ−glutamyltransferase activities. Aspartate transaminase, alkaline phosphatase, γ− glutamyltransferase, and lactate dehydrogenase activities and cholesterol concentration also varied as a result of chronic low-level contamination of feed. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Our results are in agreement with reports that attribute increased alanine transaminase and alkaline phosphatase activities and decreased total protein concentration to petroleum exposure in sea otters during an oil spill. Sodium, calcium, creatinine, cholesterol, and lactate dehydrogenase may be valuable variables to assess for guidance during initial treatment of sea otters exposed to oil spills as well as for predicting which petroleum-exposed sea otters will reproduce following an oil spill. Measurement of these variables should aid wildlife professionals in making decisions regarding treatment of sea otters after oil spills. (Am J Vet Res 2000;61: 1197–1203)