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After decades of fragmented global investment in animal-human health research, more than 40 researchers will participate in an Australian government-funded program to train veterinarians in Southeast Asia and the Pacific on how to detect infectious diseases before they spread to the human population.
“Most communicable diseases are zoonotic, which means they are transmitted from animals to humans,” said Navneet Dhand, an associate professor of biostatistics and veterinary epidemiology at the University of Sydney.
Early detection of disease in animal populations would help prevent future human outbreaks, says Dhand, who leads a team of scientists. To this end, the Australian government has promised € 4.3 million. Australian dollars ($ 2.8 million): The project will last three years and will cover 11 countries in the region. That is part of the $ 300 million already underway. dollars for the India-Pacific program, which encourages more proactive pandemics and better health care.
Scientists agree that the new coronavirus originated in animals, although how and when it was transmitted to humans is still unknown. While researchers demand stopping the spread of the disease as soon as possible as the best defense against future outbreaks, government investment in such strategies has been far from sufficient.
Insufficient attention
Australia famous for its unique wildlife and 48 billion. Scientists say dollars in the agricultural industry, which makes up the bulk of the economy, can transfer unique insights to less developed regions.
Mr. Dhand’s team will train more than 200 veterinarians and para-veterans from Southeast Asia to collect and track data on sick animals, both in the wild and on farms.
Participants will receive training in a variety of skills, such as how to inspect and examine a sick animal upon arrival at the farm, not just to detect obvious diseases, or how to check for signs of spread among other animals you’ve been in Contact.
They will also learn how to sample animals to create a database that could help see certain ecological trends and patterns of animal behavior over time. This would help discover where outbreaks are most likely and how they can spread, giving researchers insight into disease transmission.
In the long run, these efforts can help stop the spread of the disease before it reaches the stage where it can spread to humans.
The potential for the transmission of animal diseases to humans is increasing along with the acceleration of urbanization and population growth. People now live closer to nature and come into contact with it more often, Dhand says.
There have been at least six large-scale outbreaks of zoonotic diseases in four decades, including H1N1 flu, SARS, and HIV, which together have claimed the lives of millions of people and affected the global economy.
However, after these outbreaks, a relatively small effort has been made to prevent the appearance of new ones.
“This lax approach has been carried out historically, with a strong focus on responding to health emergencies, but insufficient attention to prevent them,” said Mark Schipp, president of the World Organization for Animal Health. “In fact, animal diseases are constantly transmitted to humans.”
Real economic impact
Zoonotic pathogens that can infect humans are only part of the threat. Even if the disease is never transmitted to humans, its outbreaks in animal populations affect food security and international trade.
2018 An outbreak of African swine fever destroyed pork stocks and affected the diets of millions of people in China, where pork is an important source of protein. It has also dealt a severe economic blow to various agricultural sectors, including pig farmers.
“The impact of uncontrolled non-zoonotic animal diseases that can be protected from vaccines is much greater than that of zoonotic diseases, if calculated properly,” said Robyn Alders, senior technical adviser, Chatham House Center for Global Health Safety . However, food security data “is not available to show the real impact on the economy.”
Now that the coronavirus pandemic is beginning to be controlled in many countries through social isolation measures, there is a risk that public attention will shift elsewhere and governments will not invest in prevention strategies again.
“The problem with animal health is that when the perceived threat to humans is controlled or significantly reduced, the money provided evaporates somewhere,” said Alders.
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