Coronaviruses roadmap:
Control Strategies
Roadmap for the development of disease control strategies for coronaviruses
Download 202410 Draft Coronavirus Disease control research roadmap Final3
Control tools
Dependencies
Next steps
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
Research Gaps and Challenges
- 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
Solution Routes
- 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
Dependencies
- 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)
State Of the Art
- 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
Projects
What activities are planned or underway?
Differential susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2 in animals : Evidence of ACE2 host receptor distribution in companion animals, livestock and wildlife by immunohistochemical characterisation
Planned Completion date 26/07/2021
Participating Country(s):
Netherlands
Veterinary Biocontained facility Network for excellence in animal infectiology research and experimentation
Planned Completion date 28/02/2023
Participating Country(s):
Europe