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

在撒哈拉以南非洲的雨林地区，人们依靠狩猎为生，处理和食用灵长类动物的肉被认为是传播人畜共患疾病的重要风险因素。随着人口的增长，对瘦肉的需求不断增长，这增加了人类感染新的猿类病毒变体的风险。与此同时，撒哈拉以南非洲的人类传染病流行率普遍上升，这使得经典人类病原体与同一病毒家族的猿病原体合并感染的可能性更大。这些双重感染对新病毒的出现提出了高风险，因为这些病毒可能重组并改变了致病特性，这可能有助于适应新宿主。更高的地方流动性，增加全球旅行，以及肉类贸易的扩展远远超出国界，包括中欧市场，促进了人畜共患病病原体的进一步分布。在两个地区进行的一项研究，一个侧重于原始的狩猎采集社区，另一个侧重于商业化肉食贸易程度高的地区，将提供有关风险因素的详细数据，如行为和社会文化特征、合并感染、重组和选定病毒的传播方式。通过这项研究，我们建立的跨学科联盟包括人类和兽医学学科的诊断学，流行病学和疾病建模以及人种学和生态学学科，不仅将提供关于病毒新变种出现的关键数据，而且还将建立调查人畜共患病和新出现疾病的能力。此外，南北学生三明治方案和培训课程将有助于建立研究平台，为当前和未来的非洲-德国合作服务。

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.