2 Sept 2020
Vets from the University of California, Davis have been awarded almost £6 million to lead research in Peru and Uganda in a bid to reduce the risk of a another viral pandemic.
James Westgate
Job Title
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda.
The world’s top ranked vet school* has been handed almost £6 million to investigate viral emergence and spillover in vulnerable forest regions.
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) School of Veterinary Medicine will use the grant – awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) – to lead research activities to advance understanding of how viruses emerge and spill over from wildlife to humans in the Amazon and Congo Basin rainforests.
A new research centre, the EpiCenter for Emerging Infectious Disease Intelligence, will focus on the two regions with the aim of improving global preparedness and response for when such events occur.
The award is 1 of 10 made by the NIAID, which aims to establish a network of Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases around the globe.
Multidisciplinary teams of investigators in the programme will:
The centre will initiate work to investigate emerging threats alongside partners in Peru and Uganda.
Christine Kreuder Johnson, director of the EpiCenter for Disease Dynamics at the UC Davis One Health Institute said: “Our centre brings together leading experts in emerging infectious disease surveillance with a one health approach.
“When the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to be sure to not let our guard down. We need to expand international collaborations in infectious disease research that integrate human, animal and environmental health.”
Team members consist of epidemiologists, virologists, entomologists and wildlife vets who have investigated Zika and dengue outbreaks in Latin America, Africa and Asia; Ebola virus outbreaks in Africa; and coronaviruses in Asia and Africa.
Surveillance and virus characterisation will focus on emerging and re-emerging viral threats in the region, as well as on new viruses that could emerge to cause another pandemic.
* According to latest Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings.
