Roadmap for the development of disease control strategies for coronaviruses

Control tools

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Control tools

Research Question

The development and validation of an effective control toolbox, including standardized surveillance and rapid diagnostics (LFD) for environmental samples, disinfection protocols and effective vaccines

Developing effective vaccines against the current most pathogenic animal health coronaviruses and future viral emergences
Biosecurity protocols are variable depending on context
Epidemiological modelling that is accurate for predicting outcomes, specifically for animal diseases. Included in this is the lack of population data needed e.g. susceptibility of different host species to CoVs
Development of novel diagnostic strategies, including sampling water or air-based technologies for wildlife testing, supported by LFD technologies
Designing processes to validate disinfection practices without relying on BSL3/CL3 containment facilities

Investment into networking and knowledge transfer to accelerate the development of technology and prototypes into the market (vaccines and diagnostics tests)
New technologies including artificial intelligence and machine learning for epidemiological modelling

Basic science to understand genotype to phenotype mutations
Establishing safe processes to sample and test environmental and veterinary samples in the field
Global surveillance to gather population data in animal hosts, and the development of appropriate methods to predict the emergence of variants of concern using surveillance data
Good communication strategy: addressing misinformation, adapting approach based on audience (pet owners vs livestock)

In the case of vaccination, some studies show that communicating the potential harm of the disease influences human behaviour more than communicating the benefit of the vaccine. Nevertheless, animal owners tend to be receptive to vaccination