.jpg)
WiLiMan-ID is based on an interdisciplinary approach that will integrate data at different scales, from the level of pathogens to the hosts and, finally, to the community of hosts and the environment. That integrated data will provide policymakers with innovative strategies and methods for prevention, surveillance, and control.
Objectives
The objective of WiLiMan-ID is to understand how animal infectious diseases, including zoonoses, disseminate and persist in changing environments. For this purpose, the project will integrate research data obtained at different scales, from the level of pathogens to that of the hosts and, finally, to the community of hosts and the territory. Integrated data will then provide policymakers with innovative strategies and methods for prevention, surveillance, and control.
See video about the project:
The Deadly Five, a video series from the WiliMan-ID project:
More specifically, WiLiMan-ID integrated approach aims at:
- Improving our understanding of the impacts of global changes on pathogen ecology and animal diseases – to predict them and possibly define appropriate countermeasures.
- Improving risk-based surveillance by providing a better understanding of the emergence and spread of animal infectious diseases.
- Improving prevention and control of infectious diseases in animals to limit their potential impacts on human populations.
The Norwegian Veterinary Institute participates in work packages 1, 2 and 4 in the project and works on CWD, one of the five diseases studied in the project, in cooperation with INRAe (FR) og ENVT (FR).
- WP1 - Current and future detection methods - NVI: Tools for CWD detection and characterization for CWD : As learned from North-American CWD, rapid and sensitive detection of CWD prions in infected host tissues, faeces and fluids and environment (soil, water) is a key issue to track the disease progression in susceptible populations and evaluate potential for horizontal spread. The implementation of the current cell-free prion detection methods is an absolute necessity because i) European CWD prions strains are different from those circulating in North-America, ii) shedding may vary amongst the affected cervids, iii) the media/environment can interfere with prion detection methods. The objective here is to identify the best substrates and implement detection / purification methods that could detect European CWD prion strains in all matrices of interest in cervids )
- WP2 - Mechanisms and drivers promoting pathogens’ increase in virulence, transmissibility and host-shift - NVI: We will focus on PrP domains involved in cervid prions CWD virulence and on strain properties. We will build on our capacity to generate recombinant prions with the reindeer PrP sequence which , after in vitro self-polymerization, are infectious in vivo in transgenic mouse models expressing mammalian PrPs. The mutants will be based on: (i) PRNP polymorphisms associated with resistance or susceptibility to disease in the natural situation, and (ii) specific alteration in PrP domains which may be important for infectivity. The strategy will be expanded to other cervid sequences, notably moose.
- WP4 - Identify the transmission routes and assess the role of hosts’ spatio-temporal distribution, the environment, and management practices in pathogen spread. - NVI: Production of mathematical models for ID transmission and dissemination for CWD
Partners
- Project leader: INRAE - Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement, FR
- ENVT - Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, FR
- IAV Hassan II - Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, MA
- NVI – Norwegian Veterinary Institute, NO
- IZS Teramo - Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise G Caporale, IT
- Sciensano – Sciensano, BE
- UCPH - Københavns Universitet, DK
- SVA - Swedish Veterinary Agency, SE
- BFC - Biofaction KG, AT
- FLI - Friedrich Loeffler Institut - Bundesforschungsinstitut fuer Tiergesundheit, DE
- ANSES - Agence Nationale de la Sécurité Sanitaire de l'Alimentation de l'Environnement et du Travail, FR
- IT - INRAE Transfert, FR
- LCV - Laboratorio Central de Veterinaria / Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación, SP
- WU-DAS - Wageningen University, Department of Animal Sciences, ND
Project leader at NVI
