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FAO COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme - Preventing the next zoonotic pandemic

Strengthening and extending the One Health approach to avert animal-origin pandemics











FAO. 2020. FAO COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme - Preventing the next zoonotic pandemic: Strengthening and extending the One Health approach to avert animal-origin pandemics. Rome.




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    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Preventing the next zoonotic pandemic
    Strengthening and extending the One Health approach to avert pandemics of animal origin in the region
    2020
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    SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, probably originated from an animal source, similar to 60 percent of all human infectious diseases. The pandemic has emphasized the need to prepare for, prevent, detect and respond to diseases at primary spillover level, where a new pandemic is likely to start. Pathogens are most likely to spread in locations where wildlife comes into contact with livestock production, particularly where people earn livelihoods, such as in live animal markets, areas where bushmeat is hunted, traded and consumed, or where growing pressures on natural ecosystems has forced livestock, wildlife and humans into close proximity. As a result, family farmers, especially women and children, are at high risk. Preventing spillover at source and mitigating the emergence and spread of pandemics requires a holistic and participatory One Health approach, involving experts, policymakers and communities in high-risk settings.
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    Article
    One Health Surveillance Highlights Circulation of Viruses with Zoonotic Potential in Bats, Pigs, and Humans in Viet Nam 2023
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    A One Health cross-sectoral surveillance approach was implemented to screen biological samples from bats, pigs, and humans at high-risk interfaces for zoonotic viral spillover for five viral families with zoonotic potential in Viet Nam. Over 1600 animal and human samples from bat guano harvesting sites, natural bat roosts, and pig farming operations were tested for coronaviruses (CoVs), paramyxoviruses, influenza viruses, filoviruses and flaviviruses using consensus PCR assays. Human samples were also tested using immunoassays to detect antibodies against eight virus groups. Significant viral diversity, including CoVs closely related to ancestors of pig pathogens, was detected in bats roosting at the human–animal interfaces, illustrating the high risk for CoV spillover from bats to pigs in Viet Nam, where pig density is very high. Season and reproductive period were significantly associated with the detection of bat CoVs, with site-specific effects. Phylogeographic analysis indicated localized viral transmission among pig farms. Our limited human sampling did not detect any known zoonotic bat viruses in human communities living close to the bat cave and harvesting bat guano, but our serological assays showed possible previous exposure to Marburg virus-like (Filoviridae), Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever virus-like (Bunyaviridae) viruses and flaviviruses. Targeted and coordinated One Health surveillance helped uncover this viral pathogen emergence hotspot.
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    Policy brief
    Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme Policy Brief - Build back better in a post COVID-19 world
    Reducing future wildlife-borne spillover of disease to humans
    2020
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    We need to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic, to better understand the root causes of zoonotic diseases, in order to prevent future outbreaks and support a green recovery. Approximately 70 percent of emerging infectious diseases today, and almost all recent pandemics, originate from animals and particularly wildlife (e.g. Ebola virus, Lassa virus, and human immunodeficiency virus). Emerging evidence indicates that such outbreaks of animal-borne diseases are on the rise, mostly due to environmental degradation and the intensification of livestock production and trade in livestock and wildlife. Human-wildlife-livestock interactions are increasing as human populations expand, and urbanization and economic activities (such as wildlife trade, husbandry, agriculture, fishing, infrastructure development, mining and logging) encroach into wildlife habitats. This greater proximity enhances the probability of disease spillover from wildlife to humans, or wildlife to livestock to humans. This policy brief provides decision-makers with a set of actionable recommendations that can be implemented to prevent future epidemics caused by the spillover of diseases from wildlife and wild meat. The recommendations are based on an associated White Paper, which assessed: a) why spillover of disease from wildlife to humans occurs, and why these zoonotic disease outbreaks can spread and become epidemics and pandemics such as COVID-19; b) what they can do to prevent, detect and respond to future spillover events, with a special focus on priority interventions at the human–wildlife–livestock interfaces. It has been produced as part of the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme, which is an Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) initiative funded by the European Union. *** The SWM Programme is being implemented by a dynamic consortium of four partners with expertise in wildlife conservation and food security: • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) • Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) • French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) • Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) For more information, please visit the SWM Programme website: www.swm-programme.info

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