Stemming the spread
Scientists screen wildlife for diseases that can be transmitted to humans.
LAND-USE change – such as when forests are converted into agricultural land or when urban areas move into pristine or rural sites – are often discussed from the aspect of carbon emissions.
What is less understood is how landuse change can result in the emergence of zoonotic diseases (ailments which are transmitted from wildlife to people or livestock).
Scientific field work is now being carried out locally to better understand how land transformation can trigger the occurrence of such diseases. For this scheme, US-based organisation EcoHealth Alliance is working with the Health Ministry, Wildlife and National Parks Department, Veterinary Services Department, Sabah Wildlife Department and Sabah Health Department. They will check wildlife for diseases, improve laboratory and surveillance capacity, and integrate wildlife disease surveillance into public health infrastructure.
These are done to create an early warning system for potential zoonotic disease spillover into domestic animals and humans, through the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats’ Predict programme that was launched in 2010. EcoHealth Alliance works to protect global health by preventing the outbreak of emerging diseases and safeguard ecosystems by promoting conservation.
It is leading the USAID Infectious Disease Emergence and Economics of Altered Landscapes Project (launched in 2013) which is constructing a model to examine the severity of outbreaks as well as calculate the expected damages under different land-use change scenarios.
The Predict programme was established to identify emerging diseases that can threaten humans and livestock. EcoHealth Alliance Malaysia project co-ordinator Tom Hughes says research shows that nearly 60% of human pathogens recorded since 1940 were caused by zoonotic pathogens, and more than 70% of these were caused by pathogens with a wildlife origin.
“What is perhaps not widely known is that most zoonoses emerge as a result of human actions, such as altering a landscape, that results in increased contact between wildlife and human or livestock,” says Hughes.
He cites the example of the Nipah virus which caused a respiratory and neurological disease outbreak in 1998 in Kampung Sungai Nipah, Negri Sembilan. It infected 265 people, mostly pig farm workers, and 40% of them died. Pigs had been the intermediate host for the virus that is carried by flying foxes. Agricultural conversion (planting fruit trees between pig pens) had resulted in flying foxes feeding in the farm. Intensive farming activities allowed the disease to persist and infect humans.
> see pAGe 11