Roadmap for the development of disease control strategies for coronaviruses

Wildlife

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Wildlife

Research Question

Current research effort is heavily biased towards describing known diseases rather than considering the ‘pre-emergent’ diversity in bats
Complexity of evolutionary routes and biogeography in bats. There is a need to increase understanding of the mechanisms of macroevolution
Better understanding of the high-risk interfaces between wildlife and humans and our domestic animals
Surveillance and availability of data is poor
Understanding long-term drivers of spill-over events e.g. biodiversity loss, changing land-use, mining and extraction industries
Understanding viral shedding into the environment and impacts on wildlife
Effect of climate change and how they are driving changes in wildlife population behaviours and migration patterns, including efforts to achieve ‘net zero’
Understanding how backyard poultry contributes to wildlife disease

Surveillance in regions where risk of spill over is high (high viral biodiversity)
In rural and backyard poultry systems birds may not be vaccinated
Raise the profile of the link between biodiversity loss and disease

CoVs largest diversity has been isolated from bats, particularly alpha-CoVs and beta-CoVs have been detected in mammals. A survey of CoV diversity carried out on approximately 20,000 animals in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, found host ecology to be the primary driving factor of bat-CoVs . Anthony et al. 2017 https://academic.oup.com/ve/article/3/1/vex012/3866407?login=true