Coronaviruses roadmap:
Control Strategies
Roadmap for the development of disease control strategies for coronaviruses
Download 202410 Draft Coronavirus Disease control research roadmap Final8
Warning signal and monitoring
Dependencies
Next steps
Warning signal and monitoring
Research Question
- Development of effective early warning systems to detect and monitor coronaviruses
Research Gaps and Challenges
- Poor, costly surveillance systems (particularly among wildlife) and a lack of sufficiently reliable diagnostics
- Limited trust among stakeholders and transparency in information sharing among and between countries
- Limited resources (including capacity and financial support) – requires effective targeting to likely sources of transmission (prioritisation)
- Interoperability and linkage with public health data
- Consideration for seasonality of different pathogens in different geographical regions is required
Solution Routes
- Study factors which contribute to novel pathogen emergence or spillover to better understand where and when to intervene
- Define and identify ‘hot-spot’ areas for risk-based surveillance and targeted sequencing of isolates
- Conduct a cost-effectiveness modelling study to assess monitoring systems across different scenarios
- Utilise sensors and artificial intelligence (predictive analytics) to identify early warning signs of coronaviruses in ‘digital farms’
- Utilise ‘citizen science’ to support for wildlife surveillance
- Integrated surveillance of farms, domestic and wild animals (in high-risk areas)
Dependencies
- Acceptability of reporting (citizen science and agricultural industry self-reporting) needs to increase
- Cost-effective and continuous surveillance systems need to be developed/utilised
- Availability of accurate cost models and prevalence estimates
- Continuous training and professional development on disease preparedness. This includes provision of tools and knowledge to local communities, particularly in high-risk, remote areas, to support early monitoring
- Consistent consideration of wildlife and ecology in peacetime is required
- Collaboration among different countries to develop shared surveillance and early warning protocols, and prompt data reporting to WAIHS. Standardised surveillance strategies should include who, what, where and when to collect samples, and for what pathogens
- Development of a One Health systems approach using innovative technologies
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