Inception phase | PANORAMA

Supporting Skills Development for Surveillance and Monitoring of Wildlife Disease

Ranger training in Cambodia

WCS

WildHealthSkills: WildHealthNet conducts capacity bridging and building with in-person and virtual trainings for all actors in the network, from field-based rangers to laboratory techs to national coordinators. The goal is to develop and share science-based protocols and best practices, and implement strong curricula so that each actor is empowered to fully participate.

- Long term financial support for technical expertise and input

- Government and local stakeholder awareness of the links between wildlife health and human health and well-being

- Government and local stakeholder interest and engagement in capacity development for wildlife surveillance and wildlife health monitoring

- Adequate human personnel without too much turnover, in order to maintain network

A foundational understanding of the links between wildlife/ environmental health and human and domestic animal health and well-being ensures better interest and buy-in for One Health competency training such as wildlife surveillance. Stakeholder-specific trainings (e.g. Event detection and reporting for forest rangers; Necropsy and pathology for laboratory staff/ veterinarians; Sample collection and handling for rangers & confiscation teams; Technology for network coordinator and rangers), multi-lingual training packages, with core competencies and evaluation tools enable broader reach and buy-in for capacity building and maintenance and continued expansion of the surveillance network national, regionally and globally.

Documentation and dissemination of results

Multi-sectoral network building for monitoring wildlife diseases for One Health

Co-development meetings for wildlife health national strategy in Lao PDR

WCS

- WildHealthBuild: Building partnerships and breaking down silos across the human health, animal health, and environment/ wildlife sectors is an essential first step in planning and implementing wildlife surveillance for One Health intelligence, improving coordinated result sharing and response and the likelihood that networks and sustainable and used to guide science-based policy and disease control mechanisms going forward.

- Long-term funding from international donors

- Support and buy-in from national government actors at local, provincial, and national levels

- Support and buy-in from central government across human health, animal health, and wildlife/ environmental sectors

Convening regular multi-sectoral meetings for open discourse on the challenges and opportunities to monitoring and management of disease at the wildlife-human-livestock interface, and improving communications and trust between and across sectors, is critical in the joint development of functional, long-term wildlife surveillance networks for One Health intelligence, and adoption of associated policies. This takes considerable time and a sustained effort, often, unfortunately, outside of the normal funding cycles of donor agencies.

Documentation and dissemination of results

4 Interpretation of the assessment results

Automatically the results are generated by the IMET and are easily interpreted. IMET contains several data visualization tools, based on an embedded statistical analyses. As soon as the assessment is completed, scores and bar-charts are displayed. Aspects which need attention are coloured along a colour and percentage scale. This makes it very simple ans easy to allocate resources to where they are most needed.

Clear identification of priorities to focus future management, funding and resources.

Praise of the current management of resources. Even though the PAs have only around 16% of the resources i.e. personnel, materials and financing that is estimated to be required, they are achieving almost 50% in terms of outputs.

In January 2022 the national director of the environment of Cabo Verde attended an online meeting to discuss our project and findings.

IMET highlighted the problems faced by the PA management team – e.g. the lack of employees. There are just three people employed to manage 14 protected areas which is beyond human capacity and really emphasised need to employ more people. 93% of the total operating budget for RNT was provided by the NGOs, and only 5.6% was provided by the government. Understanding these input aspects allows the planning of a sustainable approach to management through the implementation of eco-tourism which could provide a stable and constant income in the long-term.

We realised that there are no baseline data for the two PAs and so we do not know if pressures such as tourism or climate change are having a negative impact on the PAs as there is nothing to compare future values to. In order for the PAs to be sustainably managed, an understanding of the resources, features and ecosystems present is needed to see if any changes are occurring.

The process also highlighted the importance of the roles of the NGOs and their contribution in terms of financial, personnel and material resources.

Planning phase

Inception phase

Documentation and dissemination of results

Local

3 Identifying sources of data

During the online and in person trainings a google drive was made where participants could upload various laws, policies and documents to aid the process. This made everything accessible to everyone and so all stakeholders could learn as little or as much as they wanted. Bertille showed everyone where to find the management plans and regulations for the protected areas. The responsibility to find specific data to present to the group was divided up and assigned to each participant.

All participants were taught how to find information including laws and objectives and where they originate. E.g. Aichi targets.
All participants shared their knowledge with each other, it was a huge capacity building exercise.

When originally we believed that some data did not exist, during the process and by gathering incdividuals we were able to fill a lot of the knowledge gaps.
All participants would be able to repeat the process without the guidance of a trainer in the future. Bertille provided the tools and guidance to allow all participants to gain the knowledge and decision-making abilities to replicate this process in the future. In theory this would allow any one of the participants to conduct the analysis on the same reserves in the future or on one of the other 47 PAs present within Cabo Verde. The skills and knowledge has been transferred to all 18 participants through this evaluation process.

Planning phase

Inception phase

Local

Local Capacity Building for Safe Sampling and Testing of Wildlife Carcasses

With limited funding for wildlife surveillance and veterinary medicine in the country, and limited access for subsistence communities to adequate health care, increasing awareness of the importance of wildlife health as it pertains to human and livestock health at local, provincial, and central levels is essential. Introducing preventative approaches and building local capacity for wildlife surveillance is key to reducing human health risks from contact with wildlife. Bringing diagnostic capacity from other nations into the country itself and ultimately to the carcass side enables better local engagement and rapid response and mitigation efforts in the case of detection of a pathogen of concern

- Long-term external financial support for the development of the wildlife health sector including surveillance and diagnostics

- Long-term funding to develop the capacity of communities to engage in preventative approaches, participatory surveillance and wildlife sampling

- The interest of the host government to develop wildlife health capacity and designation of time and personnel availability to be trained

Enhancing local understanding of the importance of wildlife health for human and livestock health and developing local capacity to conduct effective wildlife surveillance is critical to achieving sustained One Health benefits

Documentation and dissemination of results

Creating sustainable networks for reporting and response to wildlife mortality

Taking the time to develop effective systems for reporting from remote areas (e.g. local human networks or cell-phone based if available) and ensuring a centralized team that responds to reports and communicates findings to communities is vital for the long-term success of such wildlife mortality monitoring networks

- Good relationships and networks from local to district to the provincial and central levels

- Good coordination across multiple sectors from local to national levels

- Financial and human capacity to respond effectively and in a timely manner to mortality reports

- Access to communication tools e.g. cell phones

If communities don't see effective response or communication with them on findings, they are unlikely to continue to participate in surveillance efforts. Taking the time to build efficient, sustainable multi-sectoral networks with key stakeholders is essential

Documentation and dissemination of results

Building Trust with Local Communities

Community engagement on Ebola

WCS Republic of Congo

Building partnerships and trust with local subsistence communities is essential to ensure successful uptake of public health messaging and community engagement in participatory surveillance, especially given that traditional superstitions and beliefs may contrast significantly with modern scientific knowledge and medicine

Time, long-term funding, and the human capacity for repeat visits to spend adequate time with communities to build long-standing relationships of trust over a period of years

In order for participatory surveillance networks with remote communities to be successful, long-term investment is needed, often longer than the duration of short funding streams from foreign entities. Repeat visits and support over many years and consistent, effective communication and rapid result sharing with the communities are essential

Documentation and dissemination of results

Entirety

Local

Implementation of Effective Control Strategies for Disease Spillover From Livestock to Wildlife

Multi-sectoral coordination, and communication and coordination with local communities, are essential to clearly and simply share findings of surveillance and why specific management strategies have been developed and are recommended for implementation. This would include, for example, vaccination of domestic livestock for PPR in areas where their range overlaps with that of significant wildlife populations, protecting livestock health, and reducing the risk of spillover to wild ungulates.

Financial support for vaccination or other management strategies; good coordination and communication between sectors; good communication and relationships with local communities of herders; access to vaccines and appropriate storage capability; human capacity to implement effective vaccination campaign.

Open lines of communication between relevant government sectors and between government and communities as well as and their understanding of the disease epidemiology is essential to implement effective disease control strategies that address the concerns of all stakeholders involved.

Documentation and dissemination of results

Local Capacity Building for Management of Disease at the Wildlife-Livestock Interface

Many nations have limited funding for wildlife health surveillance so developing this capacity and the knowledge of wildlife health and disease epidemiology as it pertains to the wildlife-livestock interface at the local, provincial and central levels is vital for sustained surveillance and for the true value of this surveillance to be realized including its use to implement wildlife-friendly interventions that also support improved livestock health.

External and governmental financial support for development of wildlife health sector including surveillance and diagnostics; interest of host government to develop wildlife health capacity; time and personnel availability to be trained

Developing local capacity for wildlife health surveillance is critical for sustainability of such efforts and sustained One Health benefits

Documentation and dissemination of results

Collection of baseline wildlife health data

Conducting monitoring and surveillance in wildlife (both healthy populations and those showing signs of disease) and routine serological testing for exposure to pathogens frequently shared with livestock as well as more in depth diagnostics e.g. PCR/ NGS on sick/ dead animals support comprehensive understanding of the circulation of pathogens in these populations, geographic and temporal distributions and time-lines of exposure and non-exposure of different populations. Integration of this data with livestock surveillance data contributes to understanding of the epidemiology of diseases and the dynamics of disease outbreaks, including the potential source, to implement effective science-based control strategies.

Financial support for surveillance; human capacity for surveillance, and data management and analysis; access to sites to conduct surveillance; cold chain/ sample storage capacity; capacity for accurate field and/ or laboratory based diagnostics; good coordination between environment/ wildlife and livestock health sectors; openness for result sharing by host government

Coordination and support from the government is essential from the beginning to ensure support for surveillance, understanding of what is being implemented and the goals/ outcomes, good coordination between sectors, engagement to build local capacity and export samples for testing where necessary, host government willingness to be open about diagnostic findings and motivation to amend disease control strategies based on findings. Wildlife health is under-funded in all countries compared with livestock and human health sectors and external donor support is almost certainly required for success of such programs in LMICs and MICs. It takes considerable time and patience to develop truly functional, localized wildlife health surveillance networks, integrated with other national surveillance networks

Documentation and dissemination of results