Ecology of Wild-life, Livestock, huMan and Infectious Diseases in changing environments

Project Information

WiLiMan-ID

Grant agreement ID: 101083833

DOI

10.3030/101083833

EC signature date 17 April 2023

Start date 1 May 2023

End date 30 April 2028

Funded under

• Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

Total cost

€ 6 086 392,50

EU contribution

€ 6 086 392,50

Coordinated by

INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE POUR L'AGRICULTURE, L'ALIMENTATION ET L'ENVIRONNEMENT
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - WiLiMan-ID (Ecology of Wild-life, Livestock, huMan and Infectious Diseases in changing environments)

Reporting period: 2023-05-01 to 2024-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project WiLiMan-ID (WIldlife, LIvestock, huMan and Infectious Diseases) focuses on the ecology of five animal infectious diseases identified as high-priority by the European that circulate among livestock (poultry, pigs, farmed deer, or horses), wildlife (birds, wild pigs, or wild deer), and humans. These diseases include African swine fever (ASF), African horse sickness (AHS), avian influenza (AI), West Nile fever (WNF), and chronic wasting disease (CWD), and cause significant health and economic damages to agriculture and/or pose serious risks to human health.

WiLiMan-ID has two primary objectives:
• To identify key drivers of the emergence, re-emergence, and spread of IDs studied in WiLiMan-ID by integrating data across multiple levels (pathogen > host > host communities > territory) while considering the impact of global changes;
• To develop and deliver innovative strategies and tools for farmers, health authorities, and policymakers to enhance the prevention, surveillance, and control of these diseases, promoting more effective and sustainable disease management.

To reach these objectives the project is organized into several interconnected areas of focus that address specific aspects of disease dynamics and aim at:
• improving methods for the sensitive and accurate detection and identification of pathogens and their associated variants in changing, complex environments.
• identifying the mechanistic drivers promoting an increase in pathogen virulence, transmissibility and/or host-shift.
• assessing the impacts of host factors as key determinants of pathogen evolution and dynamics, notably those related to vaccine responses or pre-existing immunity to viral infection.
• identifying transmission routes and assesses the role of the host spatio-temporal distribution (including vectors), the environment (pathogen reservoirs in wildlife, impact of global changes on migration routes), and management practices (farming, trade, transport) in pathogen spread.
• developing next-generation analytical approaches for designing effective strategies and methods for surveillance, prevention, and control within a context of global changes.
• disseminating and converting the results into user guides, training materials, and communication tool kits to optimise their exploitation by relevant stakeholders

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Over the first 18 months, efforts were concentrated on developing the necessary tools and methodologies to achieve WiLiMan-ID objectives, while acquiring the first results.
Sequencing methodologies using new techniques, such as multi-segment reverse transcription PCR and Sequence-independent Single-Primer Amplification, were improved, surpassing our previous capabilities. Significant progresses were made towards the genetic characterization of viral pathogens studied in the project. Preliminary work on the development of CWD sensitive detection methods, especially in reindeer urine, further showcases our progress, promising significant impacts on environmental monitoring of the pathogen.
Tools and models to identify molecular factors related to the virulence and transmission of various pathogens were implemented. Several key mutations linked to AIV virulence and transmissibility were identified that should be carefully surveyed in the future. Additionally, prions from Scandinavian moose were shown to be pathogenic in humanized mice after transmission through sheep, providing insights into cross-species transmission and informing future surveillance and control strategies for prion diseases.
The identification of host factors influencing the virulence and pathogenicity of emerging viruses using interactomics and transcriptomics has begun. This involved the development of infection models for AIV and the study host-virus interactions in particular with the immune system for AIV, USUV, WNV and ASF. For AHSV and WNV, preliminary work was conducted to identify proteins from vectors that interact with the pathogens to further understand their role in viral transmission.
Significant progress was made toward the understanding of disease transmission by creating models at multiple scales, building a harmonized database and identifying environmental factors driving ASF and WNF outbreaks. Some of these models will further take into to account individual heterogeneities and, interactions between hosts and the environment, to further represent population scale processes, leading to observable disease patterns.
Frameworks were developed that combine socio-economic and epidemiological approaches to inform animal health policy. Progresses included creating a preparedness index to assess countries' readiness to respond to emerging infectious diseases, and synthesizing mathematical models for diseases like AI, ASF, WNF, and CWD. The development of a modelling challenge on high pathogenic AI was initiated to engage global experts to enhance policy and response strategies.
Finally, some activities were devoted on developing a web and social media presence, producing a short film, and hosting roundtable sessions with key stakeholders. These efforts aim to raise awareness, foster collaboration, and gather feedback, laying the groundwork for further dissemination and stakeholder engagement.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

WiLiMan-ID is still at an early stage and has only generated limited publicly available output, yet the production of research results is progressing as planned. So far, improved sequencing methodologies of viruses circulating in different ecosystems together with the identification of key mutations involved in virulence and transmission are set to enhance public health monitoring and bolster epidemiological surveillance in animals. As well, the development of sensitive methods for detecting cell-free prions linked to CWD in deer hold significant scientific, economic, societal, and industrial implications. They lay the foundation for future prion biology investigations and the development of novel diagnostic tools. Early detection capabilities can prevent costly disease outbreaks, protecting wildlife and reducing potential losses in industries like tourism and hunting. This is of outmost importance when considering the recent data obtained in WiLiMan-ID and satellite projects that reported an increase in interspecies transmission capacity and zoonotic potential of a European moose CWD isolate after passage in an ovine-prion protein expressing host.

Preliminary work has established a foundation for understanding (i) the host immune response to key pathogens studied in the project, to further guide vaccine development, and (ii) the role of vectors in viral transmission. By developing multiscale models, the project has also progressed towards a better understanding of disease transmission, considering individual heterogeneities and host-environment interactions to identify population-level patterns. These models will help predicting disease dynamics under environmental changes, guide responses to viral outbreaks, and provide tools such as transmission models and risk maps to support surveillance, biosecurity, and readiness efforts. Finally, data have been collected from EU countries and a preparedness index is currently being developed to further help policy makers, animal- and public-health managers to detect and respond appropriately to emerging outbreaks.

WiLiMan-ID logo

WiLiMan-ID Infectious Diseases, Pathosystems and scales stufied