Coronavirus: ‘Animal disease detectives’ to fight human transmission

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will fund an urgent training program for ‘animal disease detectives’ in 11 countries across Southeast Asia.

Zoonotic diseases, which transfer from animals to humans, are becoming increasingly more prevalent.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will fund an urgent training program for a team of “animal disease detectives” in 11 countries across Southeast Asia to prevent the spread of diseases that are transmissible from animals to humans.

With more than 200,000 people dead from COVID-19 around the world, Associate Professor Navneet Dhand from the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity and the University of Sydney’s School of Veterinary Science said equipping veterinarians with the tools for disease outbreak investigations has never been so important.

“The coronavirus outbreak has underlined how urgent this work is,” Professor Dhand said.

“The majority of emerging infectious diseases, such as coronavirus, are zoonotic: they spread from animals to humans.

“To protect humans from diseases we must look for pathogens and disease ‘upstream’ in domestic animals and wildlife before they spread to the human population.”

Led by veterinary scientists from schools across Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific, the program will train animal health experts to spot potential threats to biosecurity.

The $4.3m program will run for three years and operate in Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

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Zoonotic diseases, which transfer from animals to humans, are becoming increasingly more prevalent due to factors like population growth, urbanisation, encroachment into wild habitats, and increasing global air travel.

Associate Professor Dhand said the rapid transmission of COVID-19 and its huge economic and health impact has demonstrated the need for such training to help countries in their responses to animal disease emergencies.

“Our focus on disease surveillance will support veterinary authorities to identify any change in animal health patterns so that early intervention and preventative actions can be taken to stop the spread of disease,” he said.

The project's participants will develop methods to manage animal disease outbreaks in the Asia-Pacific region and the means to detect outbreaks early and employ swift intervention.

In recent days, Australia has intensified the pressure on China to look into the health risks associated with wildlife ‘wet’ markets, calling on G20 nations to bring an end to the practice.

The COVID-19 outbreak is thought to have originated in a wet market in Wuhan in central China. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has pushed the need for an independent inquiry into China’s handling of the outbreak, lobbying for higher powers to trace the source of the pandemic outbreak.

It is understood Mr Morrison wants to push an overhaul of the global health body because a review into the origins of the pandemic could take up to five years.