Emerging Pathogen in Wild Amphibians and Frogs (Rana catesbeiana) Farmed for International Trade

Chytridiomycosis is an emerging disease responsible for global decline and extinction of amphibians. We report the causative agent, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, in North American bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) farmed for the international restaurant trade. Our findings suggest that international trade may play a key role in the global dissemination of this and other emerging infectious diseases in wildlife

IDMC’s portrayal of responsibility for the forcefully displaced, during the Eritrea-Ethiopia conflict (1998- 2000)

This paper is about the issue of responsibility for forcefully displaced in conflict. It highlights the issue of responsibility in regard to forcefully displaced persons as portrayed by the International Monitoring Centre (IDMC). The subject for analysis is IDMC’s report submitted year 2006, which is a summary of forced displacement’s causes and consequences in the Eritrea and Ethiopia conflict (1998-2000). The aim of the paper is to determine who the IDMC portray as responsible -in accordance with the theory applied- for those who have been forcefully displaced during and after the conflict. Via the use of David Miller’s theory on responsibility, a deeper understanding of the conflict and forceful displacement as a whole will be presented. Through a content analysis and with the use of tables, an analysis of IDMC’s report will be formed and in the result of the analysis, actors will be analysed and presented as bearing responsibility. Finally, the discussion will present the results, answers to the research questions and examine why the IDMC portrays certain actors as responsible

Integrating invasion and disease in the risk assessment of live bird trade.

AimInternational trade in plants and animals generates significant economic benefits. It also leads to substantial unintended impacts when introduced species become invasive, causing environmental disturbance or transmitting diseases that affect people, livestock, other wildlife or the environment. Policy responses are usually only implemented after these species become established and damages are already incurred. International agreements to control trade are likewise usually based on selection of species with known impacts. We aim to further develop quantitative invasive species risk assessment for bird imports and extend the tool to explicitly address disease threats.LocationUnited States of America.MethodsWe use a two-step approach for rapid risk assessment based on the expected biological risks due to both the environmental and health impact of a potentially invasive wildlife species in trade. We assess establishment probability based on a model informed by historical observations and then construct a model of emerging infectious disease threat based on economic and ecological characteristics of the exporting country.ResultsWe illustrate how our rapid assessment tool can be used to identify high-priority species for regulation based on a combination of the threat they pose for becoming established and vectoring emerging infectious diseases.Main conclusionsOur approach can be executed for a species in a matter of days and is nested in an economic decision-making framework for determining whether the biological risk is justified by trade benefits

Survival of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in Water: Quarantine and Disease Control Implications

Amphibian chytridiomycosis is an emerging infectious disease of amphibians thought to be moved between countries by trade in infected amphibians. The causative fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, produces aquatic, motile zoospores; infections have been achieved in experiments by exposing amphibians to water containing zoospores. However, the ability of this fungus to survive in the environment in the absence of an amphibian host is unknown. We show that B. dendrobatidis will survive in tap water and in deionized water for 3 and 4 weeks, respectively. In lake water, infectivity was observed for 7 weeks after introduction. The knowledge that water can remain infective for up to 7 weeks is important for the formulation of disease control and quarantine strategies for the management of water that has been in contact with amphibians

An Economic and Policy Framework for Pandemic Control and Prevention

Pandemics have a long history in our global population, from the Justinian Plague of AD541-2 through the Black Death of the middle ages to the 1918 flu and a series of recent infections such as HIV/AIDS, SARS, and Ebola. Pandemics are diseases with global spread, meaning they typically affect more than one continent. Historical reviews of the natural history of pandemics suggest some common themes: 1) in the majority of cases, they are caused by diseases that were previously unknown; 2) they often exploit new travel and trade networks; and 3) they frequently originate in wildlife species in remote regions. With the growing interface between human populations and wildlife species, and increases in globalization and air travel, it is likely that pandemic incidences will only become more frequent. Understanding what brings a disease into a population and causes it to evolve the ability for sustained human-to-human transmission can provide a potential policy framework for preventing pandemics because intervention strategies can be tailored to reduce the threat at its origin. However, before we can enact policies, we need to understand when and where to act and how much they will cost

Prediction and prevention of the next pandemic zoonosis.

Most pandemics--eg, HIV/AIDS, severe acute respiratory syndrome, pandemic influenza--originate in animals, are caused by viruses, and are driven to emerge by ecological, behavioural, or socioeconomic changes. Despite their substantial effects on global public health and growing understanding of the process by which they emerge, no pandemic has been predicted before infecting human beings. We review what is known about the pathogens that emerge, the hosts that they originate in, and the factors that drive their emergence. We discuss challenges to their control and new efforts to predict pandemics, target surveillance to the most crucial interfaces, and identify prevention strategies. New mathematical modelling, diagnostic, communications, and informatics technologies can identify and report hitherto unknown microbes in other species, and thus new risk assessment approaches are needed to identify microbes most likely to cause human disease. We lay out a series of research and surveillance opportunities and goals that could help to overcome these challenges and move the global pandemic strategy from response to pre-emption

Quantifying Global Drivers of Zoonotic Bat Viruses: A Process-based Perspective

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs), particularly zoonoses, represent a significant threat to global health. Emergence is often driven by anthropogenic activity (e.g. travel, land use change). Although disease emergence frameworks suggest multiple steps from initial zoonotic transmission to human-to-human spread, there have been few attempts to empirically model specific steps. We create a process-based framework to separate out components of individual emergence steps. We focus on early emergence and expand the first step, zoonotic transmission, into processes of generation of pathogen richness, transmission opportunity and establishment, each with their own hypothesised drivers. Using this structure, we build a spatial empirical model of these drivers, taking bat viruses shared with humans as a case study. We show that drivers of both viral richness (host diversity and climatic variability) and transmission opportunity (human population density, bushmeat hunting and livestock production) are associated with virus sharing between humans and bats. We also show spatial heterogeneity between the global patterns of these two processes, suggesting high priority locations for pathogen discovery and surveillance in wildlife may not necessarily coincide with those for public health intervention. Finally, we offer direction for future studies of zoonotic EIDs by highlighting the importance of the processes underlying their emergence

Bushmeat Hunting, Deforestation, and Prediction of Zoonotic Disease

Integrating virology, ecology, and other disciplines enhances prediction of new emerging zoonoses

Climate Change and Health: Transcending Silos to Find Solutions

Background: Climate change has myriad implications for the health of humans, our ecosystems, and the ecological processes that sustain them. Projections of rising greenhouse gas emissions suggest increasing direct and indirect burden of infectious and noninfectious disease, effects on food and water security, and other societal disruptions. As the effects of climate change cannot be isolated from social and ecological determinants of disease that will mitigate or exacerbate forecasted health outcomes, multidisciplinary collaboration is critically needed. / Objectives: The aim of this article was to review the links between climate change and its upstream drivers (ie, processes leading to greenhouse gas emissions) and health outcomes, and identify existing opportunities to leverage more integrated global health and climate actions to prevent, prepare for, and respond to anthropogenic pressures. / Methods: We conducted a literature review of current and projected health outcomes associated with climate change, drawing on findings and our collective expertise to review opportunities for adaptation and mitigation across disciplines. / Findings: Health outcomes related to climate change affect a wide range of stakeholders, providing ready collaborative opportunities for interventions, which can be differentiated by addressing the upstream drivers leading to climate change or the downstream effects of climate change itself. / Conclusions: Although health professionals are challenged with risks from climate change and its drivers, the adverse health outcomes cannot be resolved by the public health community alone. A phase change in global health is needed to move from a passive responder in partnership with other societal sectors to drive innovative alternatives. It is essential for global health to step outside of its traditional boundaries to engage with other stakeholders to develop policy and practical solutions to mitigate disease burden of climate change and its drivers; this will also yield compound benefits that help address other health, environmental, and societal challenges