Reducing the Economic and Zoonotic Impact of Avian Influenza (REZIAI): delivering novel vaccines and diagnostics from laboratory to the field.

安全和无疾病的家禽生产系统对于维持全球粮食供应和改善小农农业社区的生计至关重要。然而，近年来各种禽流感病毒的出现、再出现和持续流行威胁着家禽业的可持续增长。此外，这些病毒在禽类中的持续传播仍然是人畜共患感染和大流行出现的可信威胁。这尤其影响到越南和巴基斯坦等中低收入国家（LMIC）低收入农民的社会经济福祉，这些国家的农业劳动力中有很大一部分是妇女和年轻人，而家禽养殖是他们的主要生计来源之一。控制这些病毒对公共卫生和兽医基础设施提出了巨大挑战。尽管采取了疾病控制措施，包括扑杀感染和接触禽群、限制移动和接种疫苗，但病毒继续对巴基斯坦和越南的家禽生产造成毁灭性破坏。这些病毒在鸟类中的持续流行增加了通过贸易和候鸟在世界范围传播的机会。对流行病毒进行特异性准确检测和疫苗接种是减少疾病影响的关键控制措施。然而，这些病毒随着时间的推移而进化，获得抗原变化，导致疫苗和诊断失败。因此，改善疾病控制对于打破这些病毒在农业系统内的流行循环至关重要。ZELS规划下的工作发展了关于禽流感病毒如何在家禽中逃避疫苗诱导免疫的知识。该项目还开发了新的疫苗技术，并利用禽流感病毒作为疫苗载体，分别保护鸡和鸭免受禽流感、马立克病和鸭鼠疫的侵害。此外，我们开发了诊断方法，可用于快速检测和区分不同亚型的aiv靠近羊群。我们还估计了禽流感对越南农业社区的人畜共患风险，以及影响巴基斯坦家禽饲养系统的疾病成本。该项目将利用这些数据集、资源和技术进一步改进疫苗和诊断方法，并将其转让给越南和巴基斯坦的合作实验室。这将提高它们在本国生产下一代创新疾病控制工具的能力。估计禽流感病毒感染对家禽价值链造成的损失以及新的改良疾病控制系统的潜在好处，将增强农民对保护动物和他们自己免受传染性病毒疾病侵害的新技术解决方案的信心。总之，提高地方生产改良疾病控制工具的能力和能力将有助于减少家禽生产损失，从而对全球粮食安全和改善动物福利具有重要意义，同时还可减少人畜共患疾病可能向人类传播。因此，拟议的研究伙伴关系将为农业社区提供直接利益，并在全球范围内提供大量间接经济、公共卫生、环境和社会利益。

Safe and disease-free poultry production systems are crucial for maintaining global food supplies and improving the livelihoods of smallholder farming communities. However, emergence, re-emergence, and continued prevalence of a diverse range of avian influenza viruses (AIVs) in recent years threaten the sustainable growth of the poultry sector. Furthermore, continued circulation of these viruses in birds remains a credible threat for zoonotic infection and pandemic emergence. This is specifically impacting the socio-economic well-being of low-income farmers in the low and middle-income countries (LMIC) such as Vietnam and Pakistan, where a high proportion of the farming workforce are women and young people, and poultry farming is one of the main sources of their livelihood. Control of these viruses presents formidable challenges to public health and veterinary infrastructures. Despite implementing disease control approaches including culling of infected and contact flocks, movement restrictions, and vaccination, viruses continue to cause devastating damage to poultry production in Pakistan and Vietnam. Continuous prevalence of these viruses in birds increases the opportunity for world-wide dissemination through trade and migratory birds. Specific and accurate detection of circulating viruses and vaccination is the key control measure employed to reduce disease impact. However, these viruses evolve over time acquiring antigenic changes resulting in vaccine and diagnostics failure. Therefore, improved disease control is critical for breaking the endemic cycle of these viruses within farming systems. The work under ZELS programme developed knowledge in how AIVs evade vaccine induced immunity in poultry. The project also developed new vaccine technologies and used avian viruses as vaccine vectors to protect chickens and ducks from avian influenza together with Marek's disease and duck plague respectively. Additionally, we developed diagnostic assays that can be used for rapid detection and differentiation of different AIVs subtypes near the flock-side. We also estimated the zoonotic risks of AIV to farming communities in Vietnam and cost of disease impacting poultry rearing systems in Pakistan. This project will utilise these data sets, resources and technologies to further improve vaccines and diagnostics and transfer them to the collaborating laboratories in Vietnam and Pakistan. This will increase their capacity and capability to produce in country next generation innovative disease control tools. Estimating losses in the poultry value chain due to AIV infection and the potential benefits of new improved disease control systems will increase the confidence of farmers to new technical solutions protecting animals along with themselves from infectious viral diseases. Altogether, increasing capacity and capability for local production of improved disease control tools will aid in the reduction of poultry production losses and thus be important for global food security and improved animal welfare, whilst also reducing possible zoonotic transmission to humans. Thus, the proposed research partnership will provide direct benefits to farming communities and substantial indirect economic, public health, environmental and social benefits on a global scale.