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WiREDZ Special Interest Group

WiREDZ – Wildlife-related Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses

Med-Vet-Net is sponsoring a Special Interest Group (SIG) in wildlife-related emerging diseases and zoonoses (WiREDZ).
This will focus on people and groups working on emerging and zoonotic diseases of wildlife in Europe. There will an emphasis on rabies, tularaemia and hantavirus infections, but all WiREDZ will be considered.

The primary objective is to have a register of people working on WiREDZ throughout Europe, this is the Med-Vet-Net WiREDZ WILDLIST. This will help collaboration, and link those who are working with specific wild species (mammals, birds, vertebrates) and those groups working on specific wildlife diseases throughout Europe. The Special Interest Group and WILDLIST will have good links to other projects and organizations. (WILDLIST registration)



New Special Interest Group – your chance to collaborate through ‘WILDLIST’


The strategic research plan of Med-Vet-Net has clearly indicated the importance of wildlife in the evolution and transmission of zoonotic diseases. The range of diseases involved is very wide, however, with the realization that wild species are significant reservoirs for both zoonotic disease and new and emerging diseases, surveillance in wildlife has become increasingly important. Important examples of WiREDZ include Avian influenza virus, West Nile, Usutu and other flaviviruses, hanta virus, tularemia, bovine tuberculosis, salmonellosis, echinococcosis (alveolar hydatidosis), tick-borne rickettsiosis, Lyme disease, brucellosis, and theleriosis. Several of these diseases have changed their epidemiology in recent years.

In the first three years of Med-Vet-Net, an interest in this area was developed through Workpackage 5 and then the Special Interest Group on Bat Lyssaviruses. In JPA4 (4th Joint Programme of Activities) this area is being developed by extension of the Bat Lyssavirus Special Interest Group to other wildlife species and other diseases. This Group seeks to cover any WiREDZ of relevance to the European context, but the overall aim is to look for changes in disease epidemiology, and changes in zoonotic potential.

Tuberculin testing for TB
Tuberculin testing for TB (Image courtesy of: Dr Christian Gortazar, IREC, Spain)

Investigating and managing zoonoses in wildlife. Tuberculin testing for TB, and attaching a transponder to a wild boar in Central Spain.

Picture acknowledgement – Dr Christian Gortazar, IREC, Spain.

SIG Workplan

This special interest group started in the 4th Joint Programme of Activities (JPA4) for Med-Vet-Net. Its tasks and outputs are to:
  1. Identify those agencies and groups undertaking scanning and targetted WiREDZ surveillance in the EU. There is a particular emphasis on Eastern EU countries, because this information is particularly not known. Several of the Med-Vet-Net partners are members of the European Wildlife Disease Association (EWDA), and an informal network of contacts has already been established.through this association which will be exploited.
  2. Establish links with these groups, initially using an on-line survey of Med-Vet-Net partners and then other bodies (potential collaborators). Additional links will be established using two questionnaires (a short basic questionnaire, and then a longer more detailed questionnaire) designed to be web-based and to have automatic data collation.
  3. Use these questionnaires to determine the level of surveillance in the EU undertaken across the following categories:
    • the zoonotic diseases/pathogens monitored;
    • the species of wildlife monitored;
    • where scanning surveillance is undertaken, and how new and emerging disease are investigated, assessed and reported;
  4. Investigate the possibility of producing a short Bulletin with open (web) access, bulletin WiREDZ news items, emphasizing communication links and asking for interested groups in the EU to contact the SIG.
  5. Develop a simple approach to scanning WiREDZ surveillance, which could be applied throughout the EU.
  6. Maintain the network of virologists and bat experts by organization of a meeting, and maintain and develop the previously established Lyssavirus database as a model of wildlife zoonoses surveillance.

Dolores Gavier-Widen
SVA, Sweden
and
Paul Duff
Veterinary Laboratories Agency
Penrith, UK
WiREDZ Special Interest Group Leaders

WILDLIST

  • Register for the WILDLIST here.
  • Search the member list here.

Meetings

Minutes and discussions of the WiREDZ meeting, Budapest, 10-12 December 2008.
 
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 Page Contact: Paul Duff - Last modified: 2009-05-19