Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BEPREP (Identification of best practices for biodiversity recovery and public health interventions to prevent future epidemics and pandemics)
Reporting period: 2022-09-01 to 2024-02-29
Epidemics and pandemics - most of them caused by zoonotic and vector-borne emerging diseases - are globally threatening our health and welfare at an alarming pace. Prevention of future disease outbreaks will be pivotal to secure human welfare and demands transformative change. "Biodiversity-is-good-for-our-health" has become a new paradigm in disease risk mitigation. Consequently, nature restoration targeting biodiversity recovery - isolated or in combination with public health interventions - has been identified as a major disease risk mitigation tool. While there are thousands of ongoing and planned nature restoration projects globally, we lack knowledge a) if such restorations indeed interrupt the infect-shed-spill-spread cascade and mitigate disease risk, b) or if they rather amplify the risk and c) on success factors characterizing restorations that mitigate disease risk. BEPREP fills this lack in knowledge and provide practical guidance. In spatially and temporally replicated field studies and experiments in case studies in Europe and the tropics, we study a)-c) and reveal the causal mechanisms of infection dynamics and of drivers along the infect-shed-spill-spread cascade. BEPREP's participatory and transsectorial approach by actively involving indigenous and local communities enables the identification of success factors of best practice restorations and interventions, incl. nature-based solutions, to guide future biodiversity recovery measures that promote healthy ecosystems. These success factors contribute to a) interrupt the infect-shed-spill-spread cascade and b) ultimately prevent disease outbreaks. The results of BEPREP help to create a European society prepared and responsive to disease risk. BEPREP hence accelerates the ecological transition required to meet EU's Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 as a core part of EU's Green Deal and supports a green recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the first project period much focus has been on establishing standards needed for sampling, laboratory analyses and mapping. A central part of BEPREP are our Case Study Areas (CSAs) where we study the causal mechanisms of infection dynamics and of drivers along the infect-shed-spill-spread cascade with a BACI (before-after-control-impact) approach. The CSAs are located in Europe and the tropics and they comprise riparian forests, rural areas including terrestrial forests and urban areas. For all tasks, we established Standard Operation Procedures (SOPs) to guarantee standardised sampling and sample handling. The activities in the CSAs are done in close cooperation with local and regional stakeholders. BEPREP has started with a stakeholder mapping and advanced stakeholder outreach towards increased acceptance and impact of nature restoration and public health interventions. Analyses of samples from one CSA already identified the presence of several pathogens prioritized by BEPREP. Analyses of samples from water, rodents, and vectors are currently done from two additional CSAs. Systematic reviews have been are performed on a) the role of wildlife trade on the risk of spillover of letpospirosis and emergence of outbreaks that supports risk mapping, and b) envirionmental drivers of orthohantavirus infections. A meta-analysis on the role of nature restoration for disease risk mitigation is in the data-extraction phase. BEPREP has established a set of 10 Ethics Principles that embody our commitment to upholding the highest standards of ethical conduct in research.
BEPREP is at an early project stage, and we do not have any final results, yet. However, we want to highlight that BEPREP has established a set of 10 Ethics Principles that embody our commitment to upholding the highest standards of ethical conduct in research.