Project description
Better prevention of diseases transmitted by vectors
Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) affect humans and livestock in Africa and Europe. Early detection, prediction and control of VBDs rely on a deep cross-organismal understanding of the features that empower them to persist in endemic areas. The EU-funded PREPARE4VBD project will focus on several VBDs and vector groups to explore synergistic possibilities for integrated and cost-effective approaches to optimise surveillance, prevention and control. The project will concentrate on mosquitos, ticks and snails and a range of their VBDs, like Rift Valley Fever, ehrlichiosis, theileriosis and fasciolosis. The aim is to develop new knowledge, detection tools and surveillance systems to improve preparedness for VBDs.
Objective
PREPARE4VBD builds on the conviction that a true shift in our ability for early detection, prediction and control of vector-borne diseases (VBDs) of both livestock and humans in Africa and Europe, can only come from advancing a deep cross-organismal understanding of the features that allow VBDs to persist in endemic areas. We will therefore “cast the net wide” focusing on several VBDs and vector groups to explore synergistic opportunities for integrated and cost-effective approaches to optimize surveillance, prevention and control of VBDs.
Specifically, we will address three vector groups (mosquitoes, ticks and snails) and a range of their diverse VBDs (Rift Valley Fever, ehrlichiosis, theileriosis and fasciolosis), to advance a broad, conceptual knowledge reaching beyond specific VBDs. We believe that only through a better understanding of what enables theVBDs and vectors to persist in their areas of origin, how they manage to spread or what allows some VBDs to successfully span the entire global North-South climatic gradient – will we gain the insights and actionable knowledge that enables us to predict the potential of VBDs to spread and establish in new areas.
PREPARE will establish a truly multidisciplinary network of partner institutions in Europe and Africa, including leading capacities in mosquito- tick- and snail-borne diseases of livestock and humans. The partners cover a wide range of disciplines such as vector ecology, molecular biology, bioinformatics, metagenomics, climate change and predictive spatio-temporal modelling, epidemiology and One Health. Our suggested approach is proactive, focusing on better prevention of tick-, mosquito- and snail-borne diseases of livestock and humans, by increasing disease knowledge in Africa, developing improved tools for rapid detection and state-of-art model-based surveillance for early detection and forecasting to form a blueprint for best practices for optimized VBD surveillance strategies for the targeted diseases
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Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
1165 Kobenhavn
Denmark