Survey for lethal zoonoses and potential emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in Africa

近年来，包括SARS和禽流感病毒感染在内的新发传染病引发了社会问题。这些病原体的来源通常是未知的，尽管有证据表明有野生动物参与。此外，环境破坏可能是新出现传染病的原因之一。在这个项目中，我们计划调查非洲人畜共患病和其他传染病的现状，非洲几乎每年都会出现许多新发疾病，以评估环境变化和疾病的发生情况。此外，我们将狂犬病研究从亚洲扩展到非洲。第一年，我们访问了赞比亚和埃及，收集样本并建立研究协会。第二年，我们访问了赞比亚、埃及和马拉维，收集样本并支持这些国家的合作者。在最后一年，我们也访问了这些国家和坦桑尼亚。在这个项目中，我们揭示了非洲狂犬病病毒流行病学的现状以及非洲其他潜在的新发传染病。

Emerging infectious diseases including SARS and avian influenza virus infection triggered the social problems in these years. Sources of these pathogens have been usually unknown, although the involvement of wild animals has been indicated. Furthermore, environmental destruction might be one of the cause of emerging infectious diseases.In this project, we planned to investigate the current situation of zoonoses and other infectious diseases in Africa where many emerging diseases have appeared almost every year in order to evaluate the environment changes and occurrences of the diseases. Adding with the purpose, we expanded the rabies reaserch from Asia to Africa.In the first year, we visited Zambia and Egypt to collect samples and to establish research associations. In the second year, we visited Zambia, Egypt, and Malawi to collect samples and to support collaborators in these countries. In the final year, we visited the countries and Tanzania, too. In this project, we revealed the current situation of rabies virus epidemiology in Africa and other potential emerging infectious diseases in Africa.