Country-Country Capacity Strengthening for Wildlife Disease Surveillance

Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia
Published: 19 October 2022
Last edited: 19 October 2022
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Summary

Under the PREDICT-2 Liberia project, a field team was trained on pathogen surveillance in wildlife, including safe and humane capture, holding, sampling, and release of animals, as well as sample cold chain, transport, and biosafety and personal protective equipment (PPE) use. This team went on to sample over 5,000 bats and several hundred rodents to increase understanding of viral circulation patterns in West Africa, including a focus on Ebola virus. In 2019, government partners in neighboring Côte d’Ivoire expressed their interest in strengthening wildlife surveillance capacity. To support development of this capacity, the PREDICT Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire teams co-led a training at the Abidjan Zoo in June 2019, with the trainers from Liberia team providing hands-on training in bat and rodent sampling.

Classifications

Region
West and Central Africa
Scale of implementation
Multi-national
Ecosystem
Forest ecosystems
Tropical deciduous forest
Tropical evergreen forest
Theme
Biodiversity mainstreaming
Health and human wellbeing
Not listed
One Health
Science and research
Other theme
Training
Species Conservation and One Health Interventions
Wildlife Health Surveillance (to capture biodiversity, health, disease, and pathogen surveillance)
Species Disease Early warning systems
One Health
Animal health
Biodiversity-health nexus
Neglected tropical diseases, emerging infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance
Challenges
Infrastructure development
Health
Lack of technical capacity
Sustainable development goals
SDG 3 – Good health and well-being
SDG 4 – Quality education
SDG 15 – Life on land
Aichi targets
Target 14: Ecosystem services
Target 19: Sharing information and knowledge

Location

Abidjan, Abidjan, Ivory Coast | Côte d’Ivoire

Impacts

A total of 50 participants from government institutions in Côte d’Ivoire (including public health, wildlife, and veterinary services) were trained. In addition to specific sampling and handling practices, broader themes included personal protective equipment and animal welfare in the sampling process, all based on rigorous global guidelines developed by the PREDICT project. This applied training benefitted from trainers knowledgeable about the conditions on the ground, including infrastructure and environmental factors and species in the region. Language barriers were avoided through involvement of national and international technical staff fluent in both English and French. All team members pitched in to make the training a success, including the team drivers from Liberia responsible for transport to Côte d’Ivoire. The training reinforced the value of train-the-trainer approaches. In Liberia, the team had been extensively trained on PREDICT protocols by international wildlife veterinarians, becoming the first Liberian workforce trained in pathogen surveillance in wildlife. Their work led to the first-ever detection of Zaire ebolavirus in a bat in West Africa. The training reinforced the pride of the Liberia team in their skills and showed the utility of country-country collaboration in regional disease detection.

Contributed by

machalaba_41505's picture

Catherine Machalaba EcoHealth Alliance

Other contributors

Jackson Y. Poultolnor
Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia
Amos G. Kollie
Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia
Sandra G. Samuels
Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia
Jallah Arku
Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia
Daniel Harris
Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia
Margret Bonason
Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia
Melkor Sackie
Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia
Emmanuel Larmouth
Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia
Albert Ross
Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia
Emmanuel Barclay
Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia
James Desmond
EcoHealth Alliance
Kalpy Julien Coulibaly
Institut Pasteur de Côte d'Ivoire
Anne Laudisoit
EcoHealth Alliance