Capacity building for the Detection and Prevention of Neglected Zoonotic Diseases in Tropical Africa

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In rainforest-areas of sub-Saharan Africa, where people rely on subsistence hunting, handling and consumption of primate meat are considered important risk factors for the transmission of zoonotic diseases. Through population expansion there is a growing demand for bush-meat which increases the risk of human infections with new simian variants of viruses. At the same time there is a general increase in prevalence of human infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, which makes co-infections of classical human pathogens with simian pathogens of the same virus family more likely. These dual infections present a high risk for new virus emergence since such viruses may recombine and have altered pathogenic properties which may facilitate adaptation to the new host. Higher local mobility, increased global travel, and extension of the bushmeat trade far beyond national boundaries including central European markets, facilitate the further distribution of zoonotic pathogens. A study performed in two regions, one focused on an original hunter-gatherer community and another one focused on a region with high degree of commercial bushmeat trade will deliver detailed data on risk factors such as behavioural and sociocultural characteristics, co-infections, recombination and modes of transmission of selected viruses. Through this study, our established interdisciplinary consortium comprising human- and veterinary medical disciplines for diagnostics, epidemiology and disease modelling as well as ethnological and ecological disciplines will not only provide key data on the emergence of new variants of viruses, but will also build capacity for the investigation of zoonotic and emerging diseases. A south-north student sandwich program and training courses will in addition contribute to the creation of research platforms that will serve current and future African-German cooperation.