A Case Study of Wildlife Value Chains in Vietnam

In Vietnam, wildlife – possible sources of zoonotic diseases – is commonly traded for various purposes by a diverse range of actors. While several interventions have been put in place to change practices related to the commercial trade and consumption of wildlife in Vietnam, the effectiveness of these interventions in mitigating zoonotic pathogen spillover from wildlife to humans is still unproven. This is in large part due to the limited knowledge of the drivers of participation and decision-making of those engaged in the wildlife value chain in the country.

New research from STOP Spillover and SEAOHUN's Pham Duc Phuc and others explores the drivers of actors’ involvement in the wildlife value chains in Vietnam and informs recommendations for managing wildlife-related activities and addressing spillover risks.

Working Together in Liberia

On April 27, 2022 USAID’s implementing partners in Liberia including representatives from Breakthrough ACTION, Community Event Based Surveillance, FAO, and STOP Spillover met at the U.S. Embassy Health Office in Monrovia to discuss progress they’ve each made as well as challenges ahead in addressing emerging and re-emerging health threats related to One Health.

Meet Our Experts

Read in depth interviews with STOP Spillover’s experts from across the globe about their visions for preventing future spillovers and pandemics.

• Dr. William Bazeyo, AFROHUN CEO: “The best way to prevent emerging zoonotic diseases is to involve everybody at all levels. We must bring everyone to the table, identify the problem, identify the gap, and agree on the solution and how to manage the gap.” Read more.

• Dr. Vipat Kuruchittham, SEAOHUN Executive Director: “To prevent viral spillover, public health literacy and an understanding of the interdependencies between humans and animals in a shared environment, known as One Health, is crucial". Read more.

• Doreen Birungi, Acting Regional Lead Africa: “Viruses do not care about country borders, so it’s up to all of us to work together to prevent the next pandemic.” Read more.

• Mildred Bembo Harris, Liberia Country Team Lead: “Our goal is to form synergies where possible and forge strong partnerships, identify gaps related to viral pathogens, and to avoid duplication in a very resource-constrained country.” Read more.

• Ha Nguyen Ngoc, Vietnam Country Team Lead: “I think STOP Spillover is unique because of the experts from diverse fields—human, animal, and environmental health—that it brings together. All of these people need to be in the room to prevent future spillovers and pandemics.” Read more.

• Watch this space for more interviews with our experts – coming soon!

New study shows wearable device technology can monitor COVID-19 symptoms

A new study from researchers at the University of Michigan found that wearable devices such as heart rate monitors can be effective tools to monitor symptoms of COVID-19. The researchers discovered that heart rate signals can help identify when individuals were infected with COVID and how sick they became - helping us better understand disease progression over time.

“The global outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus imposed important public health measures, which impacted our daily lives,” says Sung Won Choi, an associate professor of pediatrics. “However, during this historical event in time, mobile technology offered enormous capabilities—the ability to monitor and collect physiological data longitudinally from individuals noninvasively and remotely.”

This mobile innovation has the potential to help us better understand other diseases and viruses as well. STOP Spillover is enhancing global understanding of the drivers of zoonotic spillover of diseases, and this type of technology could advance our ability to understand and track potential future pandemics at an individual level. 

Meet UCLA

Research in infectious diseases and emerging zoonoses is being conducted across multiple campus units at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), including the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Center for Tropical Research, Fielding School of Public Health, and David Geffen School of Medicine.

As part of the STOP Spillover global consortium, Dr. Katie Prager, a veterinarian and disease ecologist in the UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, is providing technical advice and support to partner countries as they develop research questions to improve our understanding of zoonotic spillover risk and interventions to mitigate these risks.

“It has been truly inspiring to see the STOP Spillover country teams work with local stakeholders to determine critical zoonotic spillover interfaces and to help develop culturally appropriate One Health approaches to effectively reduce risks of spillover,” said Dr. Prager.