Vector-borne RADAR (Real-time Arbovirus Detection And Response)

病媒传播的RADAR计划希望通过采用“同一个健康”方法，加强对英国野生鸟类蚊媒疾病的监测，这些疾病具有更广泛的医学和兽医重要性。我们的第一个工作包将扩大我们成功的多学科网络的范围，该网络负责2020年在英国检测Usutu病毒，包括对鸟类宿主和蚊子媒介进行采样的额外途径。这将遵循荷兰用于检测新出现的野生鸟类蚊媒病毒的类似成功范例（www.onehealthpact.org）。基本上，我们将在被认为是病毒入侵高风险地区的鸟类观察站和持牌围捕者中抽取候鸟（以确定病毒入侵的潜在途径）和留鸟（以阐明地理范围和病毒流行情况）的样本。在每个指定的鸟类采样点，我们也会设置捕蚊器，以提供有关病媒生物群落组成、病毒流行情况和潜在传播网络的信息。我们的第二个工作包将开发一个早期预警系统，用于检测英国野生鸟类潜在的人畜共患病毒性疾病。两个现有的独立的公民科学数据计划（英国鸟类学信托基金会的“花园鸟类观察”和“花园野生动物健康”项目）将被纳入其中，以确定与野生鸟类报告率下降相关的疾病事件报告集群，作为指示病毒传播区域和评估近实时影响的代理。该方法已被证明是成功的，通过我们的联盟，回顾性地确定了黑鸟的死亡模式和报告率下降，这是由2020年英国Usutu病毒爆发引起的。我们的第三个工作包将与参与植物园观鸟计划的公民科学家合作进行。我们将进行一项调查，旨在了解英国花园中黑鸟的运动和栖息地的使用情况。所产生的数据将提供具体栖息地使用情况的详细信息，并确定与可能导致蚊子数量增加的花园栖息地特征（例如死水地区）相关的潜在病毒传播风险。除此之外，我们还将在伦敦和东南部建立捕黑鸟的地点，在那里，有执照的捕鸟者将以雾网和色环（这样就可以从远处识别它们，而不需要进一步的捕鸟）捕黑鸟为目标，以量化随时间推移的存活率。参与该计划的操作员还将接受培训，部署捕蚊器和识别蚊子，以提供证据，将病媒丰度和疾病流行与野生鸟类生存直接联系起来。这项研究计划产生的数据将提高我们对外来蚊媒病毒如何在温带地区出现和持续存在的理解，同时也直接为政府关于人畜共患疾病的政策和风险评估、公共卫生信息和蚊子控制策略提供依据。通过与公民科学家、野生动物康复者、动物收藏者以及动物福利和保护非政府组织的合作，我们还将提高对动物健康和生物多样性影响的认识。

Vector-borne RADAR looks to enhance surveillance of mosquito-borne diseases of wild birds in the UK that have wider medical and veterinary importance by adopting a One Health approach. Our first work package will increase the scope of our successful, multi-disciplinary network, which was responsible for the detection of Usutu virus in the UK in 2020, to include additional routes for sampling both bird hosts and mosquito vectors. This will follow a similar and successful paradigm that has been used in the Netherlands to detect emerging mosquito borne viruses of wild birds (www.onehealthpact.org). In essence we will co-opt bird observatories and licensed ringers in areas deemed at high-risk of virus incursion to sample migrant birds (to identify potential routes of virus incursion) and resident birds (to elucidate geographic extent and virus prevalence). At each of our designated bird sampling sites we will also set up mosquito traps to provide information on vector community composition, virus prevalence and potential transmission networks. Our second work package will develop an early warning system for the detection of potential zoonotic viral diseases of wild birds in the UK. Two existing and independent citizen science data schemes (the British Trust for Ornithology's [BTO] Garden BirdWatch, and the Garden Wildlife Health [GWH] project) will be co-opted to identify clusters of disease incident reports which correlate with a reduction in wild bird reporting rates, as a proxy to indicate areas of virus circulation and assess near real-time impact. This approach has been shown to be successful, by our consortium, in retrospectively identifying patterns of Blackbird mortality and declines in reporting rates caused by the 2020 Usutu virus outbreak in the UK. Our third work package will be conducted in collaboration with citizen scientists who participate in the BTO Garden BirdWatch. We will undertake a survey aiming to understand fine-scale Blackbird movements and habitat use in UK gardens. Data generated will provide detail on specific habitat use and identify potential virus transmission risks in relation to habitat features of gardens that are also likely to encourage higher mosquito populations (e.g. areas of stagnant water). Alongside this we will establish Blackbird trapping sites in London and the south-east, where licensed ringers will aim to catch birds in mist nets and colour-ring (so they can be identified from a distance without the need for further trapping) individual Blackbirds in order to quantify survival rates through time. Ringers involved in the scheme will also be trained to deploy mosquito traps and identify mosquitoes to provide evidence to link vector abundance and disease prevalence directly to wild bird survival.The data generated from this research proposal will improve our understanding of how exotic mosquito-borne viruses emerge and persist in temperate areas while also feeding directly into government policy & risk assessments on zoonotic diseases, public health messages and mosquito control strategies. Through engagement with citizen scientists, wildlife rehabilitators, zoological collections, and animal welfare and conservation NGOs, we will also raise awareness of implications for animal health and impacts on biodiversity.