MONITORING EMERGING ISSUES IN WILDLIFE HEALTH

• Sponsoring Institution: State Agricultural Experiment Station
• Project Status: TERMINATED
• Funding Source: STATE
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 0231753
• Project No.: MIN-62-047
• Project Start Date: Oct 1, 2012
• Project End Date: Jun 30, 2014

Project Director
Ponder, J.

Recipient Organization
UNIV OF MINNESOTA
(N/A)
ST PAUL,MN 55108

Performing Department
Veterinary Population Medicine

Non Technical Summary
Wildlife is recognized as a key component of ecosystem health, a term encompassing the integration of human, domestic animal, wild animal and environmental health. Wild animals play a key role in emerging infectious disease in humans by serving as reservoirs for pathogens such as avian influenza and West Nile virus. The increased significance of zoonotic disease is most commonly associated with more frequent interfaces between humans and animals. Livestock and poultry are also vulnerable to the effects of infectious disease transmission by wildlife due to economic losses from disease outbreaks and the imposition of severe trade restrictions. Current examples of interest in Minnesota include bovine tuberculosis in deer and Newcastle disease in cormorants. Wildlife can serve as sentinels. The proverbial canary in the coalmine phrase refers to the potential to identify health threats in wildlife populations and forecast a need for action to preserve human health. Wildlife may also serve as biosecurity indicators. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, five of the six Category A bioterrorism threats identified are zoonotic pathogens which may be found in wildlife, spread by wildlife, or may show up first in wild species. While there are systems in place for monitoring disease in humans and some domestic animals, there is currently no comprehensive, integrated strategy for monitoring wildlife health issues in the United States. Many federal and state agencies address pieces of the issue and public-private partnerships have developed surveillance programs for specific diseases such as avian influenza and West Nile virus. There is, however, no general monitoring and no real-time alert systems. While the need for such as monitoring system has been identified, there are also challenges to creating such a system. Specimen collection is currently limited to pro-active trapping of animals or convenience sampling from hunter-killed animals; however, one potential untapped source is animals treated at wildlife rehabilitation centers. Critically, there is also a lack of electronically collected data in real-time. What is needed is an integrated system for gathering, collecting, compiling, analyzing and acting upon wildlife health information in a timely manner. Through workshops and meetings bringing together experts in wildlife disease, epidemiology, risk assessment, information management and data platform technology, the outcome of this grant will be a roadmap defining resource needs, process and goals of creating an integrated system for wildlife health information.

Animal Health Component

100%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

(N/A)

Applied

(N/A)

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
311	0820	1170	50%
311	0830	1170	50%

Knowledge Area
311 - Animal Diseases;

Subject Of Investigation
0830 - Wild animals; 0820 - Wild birds;

Field Of Science
1170 - Epidemiology;

Keywords

wildlife monitoring

wildlife health

one health

emerging disease

sentinels

Goals / Objectives
Specific aim: To perform a feasibility assessment and develop a strategy to create an integrated, multi-data stream information resource for monitoring wildlife for emerging issues related to human, animal, and environment health. The long-term goal is to develop the capability to provide an early indication and warning of adverse health events for humans and livestock through the collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination of information related to wildlife health issues.

Project Methods
Approach: 1. Establish a steering committee of diverse expertise to guide project development. 2. Define 3 wildlife disease scenarios representing health threats with human or livestock impacts. Potential scenarios might include illness from an environmental toxin (ex: heavy metal toxicity such as lead or mercury), an emerging zoonotic disease (ex: West Nile virus), or spillover disease impacting livestock (ex: Newcastle disease/paramyxovirus). 3. Host a scoping workshop using wildlife disease scenarios to: a)Identify types of data that would support identification of issue and risk assessment, allow for warnings, and support decision making response, b)Define info sources and identify gaps, 4. Assess data sources for availability, credibility, and accuracy. 5. Host a research meeting to create a process map of capability from data collection through dissemination of warning. 6. Create strategy to include timeline, budget, and additional stakeholders to develop capability. 7. Develop a white paper/proposal.

Progress 10/01/12 to 06/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: The target audiences for this project are federal and state agencies, as well as researchers, scientists and NGO's who have interest in wildlife health data. Agencies, organizations and universities represented in the workshops included: Federal government United States Fish and Wildlife Service United States Dept of Defense, Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center United States Geological Services United States Dept of Agriculture, Wildlife Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dept of Homeland Security Science and Technology State government MN Dept of Health University researchers University of Minnesota - 7 faculty, 3 students Cornell University - 1 faculty Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota Other NGO's EcoHealth Zoo Animal Health Network Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? A veterinary public heatlh resident (graduate student) received training and experience in project management and developing a gap analysis framework, while developing knowledge around wildlife health issues and working with the public health and wildlife communities. Three addtiional veterinary public health residents participated in the workshop, learning about the need for an integrated wildlife health monitoring system in the United States, the current efforts in this area at the federal level, the current status of knowledge and associated gaps, and the challenges to creating a comprehensive wildlife health monitoring system How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? A final report has been completed and will be sent to all workshop participants. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Major outcomes/accomplishments: A series of needs/gaps in the existing wildlife health infrastructure were identified and recommendations developed for addressing these needs A successful connection was made between the wildlife rehabilitation community and the national wildlife disease surveillance effort. The potential role that the rehabilitation community can play as both a wildlife sentinel system and a “connector” to the captive wildlife community was recognized An increased awareness among all participants of the potential contributions of the wildlife rehabilitation community to this area An agreement for increased cooperation between organizations and agencies working on initiatives to address the need for wildlife health data. Several on-going efforts were unknown or unrecognized by all workshop participants and connections were made for sharing of information and facilitating interaction. Significant results: Recognition of (several) federal initiatives currently underway to address wildlife health monitoring Validation of a use for a national rehabilitation health monitoring platform in the larger programs being developed at the federal level. Establishment of a working group to continue exploring potential models for a national wildlife rehabilitation health monitoring platform, to be integrated into the federal programs. Key outcomes: Existing wildlife health data sources were mapped into six categories: wildlife morbidity/mortality data, reportable disease records, pathology data, clinical medical records, population metrics and environmental data. Each category was examined for current availability and accessibility of data sources. Five overlapping end-user groups with interest in wildlife disease data were identified: Wildlife managers (including state DNRs, US FWS, tribal organizations and NOAA), clinical practitioners, animal agriculture, public health and public defense, and secondary interest groups (industry, government agencies, NGOs, general public). The lack of a comprehensive database of wildlife disease data in the US was identified as a critical gap in wildlife health reporting. There was joint interest expressed in advancing and updating a directory or “data source dictionary” to compile existing sources of wildlife disease data. A format was established to develop this directory Workshop participants identified key action areas to address gaps in wildlife health monitoring: (1) development of a minimum data set for wildlife heatlh information, (2) development of standardized terminology, (3) coordination of existing funding and resources to establish an integrated data system, and (4) key areas for research were identified.

Publications

Progress 10/01/12 to 09/30/13

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? A veterinary public health resident has been engaged as project manager. This will be an applied learning providing experience in dealing wtih a variety of stakeholders from academia and agencies; identifying and assessing data sources; and understanding of the One Health concept. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? The scoping workshop will be held in December, 2013. During this workshop, types of data useful to this project will be identified and knowledge gaps articulated. Data sources identified during workshop will be assess for availability, credibility and accuracy. The research meeting will be held late winter/early spring 2014 to create process map of capability from data collection through dissemination of warning. A white paper outline strategy to develop capacity to meet the need for realtime identification of emerging health issues in wildlife will be created.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The steering committee has been established for the implementation of the project and an initial virtual workshop is scheduled for December, 2013. A survey to collect information of the availability and utility of current systems that collect wildlife health information has been developed and will be reviewed by the steering committee at the virtual workshop. In addition, three case scenarios have been developed to be used during the workshop to assess the information needed to identify and address emerging issues in real time.

Publications