NOTES FROM THE FIELD - ZOONOTIC DISEASES
Greetings from Nairobi!
This month we look at the intersection of health and environment. Animal-to-human infectious diseases, or
zoonotic diseases
, are on the rise and there is increasing evidence that it's linked to degraded biodiversity and increased consumption of wildlife, such as through wildlife trafficking.
In
this
USAID-supported study published in Mammal Review last year, scientists
demonstrate that
deforestation
may accelerate the spread of Ebola in the rainforests of West and Central Africa by increasing human-bat interactions.
It's suspected
that COVID-19 could be linked to pangolins, which may have served as an intermediate species for the virus, allowing the virus to make the jump from bats to people. Pangolins are one of the most
trafficked
animals in the world. Below, Special Agent for Homeland Security Investigations and USAID partner, John Brown, explains how the U.S. works through multiple agencies and partners to stop wildlife crime.
I hope you are all staying safe and healthy. Enjoy the read.
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Aurelia Micko
Environment Office Chief
USAID Kenya and East Africa
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Q&A: TACKLING THE COMPLEXITY OF WILDLIFE CRIME THROUGH MULTINATIONAL AND MULTI AGENCY COLLABORATION
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Wildlife crime threatens the security, economy and biodiversity of East Africa. The commercial trade and consumption of wildlife can also lead to zoonotic disease outbreaks like Ebola, SARS, HIV, and COVID-19.
To better understand how the USAID environment office uses a whole-of-government approach to combating wildlife crime, we spoke with John Brown III, Special Agent for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and USAID partner.
Q1: John, can you tell me a little about your work and with whom you partner?
In Kenya, we partner with Kenya Wildlife Service to conduct multi-agency, multinational collaborative investigations. Our goal is to dismantle and disrupt transnational criminal organizations involved in environmental crimes where they operate. We also work very closely with global NGO partners and the scientific community on these investigations.
For instance, HSI partners with the
Center for Conservation Biology
to provide forensic DNA analysis of major ivory and pangolin scale seizures around the world. This furthers our multinational collaborative investigations of the transnational criminal organizations responsible for the illegal shipments.
We also facilitate DNA analysis of rhino horn seizures through our scientific partners at RhODIS, the Rhino DNA Index System, at the University of Pretoria. With their help, we can determine the origin of the illegal wildlife products, make connections between seizures, and use the evidence to prosecute criminals.
Q2: The U.S. Congress recently held a virtual briefing to examine the links between the commercial trade and consumption of wildlife and disease outbreaks like COVID-19, SARS, HIV and Ebola. Can you tell me about the links? And what we can do to stop disease outbreaks linked to the trade and consumption of wildlife?
Bushmeat consumption, particularly of great apes and primates, has been linked to the spread of the Ebola virus. It is suspected that COVID-19 is linked to the consumption of bushmeat as well, in this instance pangolins. These jumps of viruses between wildlife and humans results from individuals and communities commercializing subsistence hunting to feed the illegal trade in bushmeat. All too often people try to justify the commercialized and unsustainable commercialization and consumption of wildlife as being a part of their culture. However, some species, pangolins for example, were once culturally taboo to consume. There are ancient texts that even describe the consumption of them as poisonous and bad for your health. That was until the wildlife traffickers and traditional medicine practitioners created false claims that body parts of these species held miracle cures. These false claims create an unsustainable demand for these species, resulting in their demise.
Click
here
to read more about how USAID Kenya and East Africa partners to end wildlife crime.
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John (left) weighs a tusk as part of the DNA sampling process with Dr. Sam Wasser (right) of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington. The tusk was part of a major ivory seizure in Angola.
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John collects a DNA sample from a tusk that was part of the ivory seizure in Angola.
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John takes a break while sampling a 3.2 ton seizure of ivory in Southeast Asia. Analysis of the shipment will help partners connect it to other shipments and the transnational criminal organization behind the illicit trade.
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WILDLIFE TRADE AND COVID-19: USAID PARTNERS RESPOND
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USAID partners across Africa are shining a light on the connection between wildlife trafficking and COVID-19. On May 19, the African Union and TRAFFIC hosted a "COVID19 and Wildlife Trade in Africa: Impacts and Challenges" webinar to share insights on the specific origins of the COVID-19 outbreak and discuss short- and long-term solutions to managing zoonotic risk.
TRAFFIC Executive Director Steven Broad noted that "emergency prohibitions on the sale and consumption of wild animals in key countries are a sensible response, but longer-term measures will need clear risk-based targeting and design." For that purpose, he urged wildlife trade specialists, specialists in the zoonotic disease field, and representatives from regulatory agencies, IGOs working in the human and veterinary health sectors, and related fields such as food safety to convene a dialogue.
USAID supports strong conservation policy, landscape-level protection and enforcement, and the use of science and technology to improve investigation and prosecution of wildlife crime.
USAID partners with TRAFFIC under the
CONNECT project
.
We also support intergovernmental partnerships to address transnational wildlife crime.
Find out more by reading our Combating Wildlife Crime
fact sheet
.
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Wildlife trade, COVID-19 and zoonotic disease risks:...
With COVID-19 cases, related human mortality, and socio-economic disruption rising rapidly around the globe, there are overwhelming reasons to concentrate on immediate emergency responses.
Read more
www.traffic.org
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USAID INTRODUCES PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITY FOR A CROSS-SECTORAL APPROACH TO CONSERVING BIODIVERSITY
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USAID recently extended its "call for partnership concept papers" for its new
Health, Ecosystems and Agriculture for Resilient, Thriving Societies
(HEARTH) initiative. Ethiopia, Kenya, and Madagascar are three of six initial participating countries.
Through this initiative, USAID is looking to partner with the private sector on cross-sectoral development solutions for
conservation of threatened landscapes
and the
well-being and prosperity
of communities
who depend on them. Initial private sector proposals include regenerative agriculture, eco-tourism, clean energy and alternatives to brick kilns.
The USAID Kenya and East Africa Mission is looking to strengthen its alignment with the devolved government structure, with a focus on specific counties and landscapes that host Kenya’s major wildlife corridors and dispersal areas.The Mission supports growth in wildlife tourism through private sector partnerships and enhanced connectivity of wildlife corridors.
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USAID headquarters and each USAID Mission have a cross-sectoral team of technical experts ready to support HEARTH. The Agency will help with rigorous monitoring for impact and has $60 million ready to leverage for round one.
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"HEARTH aims to foster cross-sectoral solutions that recognize that the health and prosperity of people depend on a healthy planet, and that healthy, prosperous people put less pressure on nature. By integrating human health, environmental health and wildlife health, HEARTH could help reduce the risk of zoonotic disease spillover,"
said SarahJean Harrison, Environment Office Deputy Director, USAID Kenya and East Africa.
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US CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING ON WILDLIFE TRADE AND THE ORIGINS OF COVID-19
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Listen
to the livestream U.S. Congressional Caucus briefing on wildlife trade and COVID-19.
Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico stresses that the U.S. and the world must be more prepared to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases between animals and humans.
"We must devote the necessary resources to preventing and enforcing against illegal wildlife trafficking and markets,"
said Senator Udall. He also stressed tha
t we need to stop
"the wholesale destruction of nature,"
with the understanding that the loss and fragmentation of wildlife habitat and populations is a major factor in the spread of zoonotic diseases.
Author David Quammen joined the discussion to share insights from his book "Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic," which examines the emergence of new diseases linked to animals. His book was published in 2012.
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UNEDITED LIVE STREAM: The ICCF U.S. Congressional Caucus ...
On April 15, 2020, the bipartisan leadership of the International Conservation Caucus convened a virtual briefing to examine links between the commercial tra...
Read more
www.youtube.com
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EXPLORING THE LINK BETWEEN BIODIVERSITY LOSS AND ZOONOTIC DISEASES
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In
COVID-19 pandemic: How nature steps in to refill 'empty forests' when animals disappear,
CIFOR examines the conditions that make the transmission of viruses, like Ebola and COVID-19, between animals and people possible.
"Empty forests, depleted of natural biodiversity by such large-scale encroachments as extraction, industry and agriculture are hollowed out by widespread deforestation and landscape degradation.
We suggest that when prey species, especially large mammals, are taken out through hunting, the balance between pathogens and hosts is altered to the extent that viruses, bacteria that cause disease can jump between different animals and even onto humans."
This research was supported by USAID.
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COVID-19 pandemic: How nature steps in to refill 'empty...
"We must not let a forest full of trees fool us into believing that all is well." Kent Redford's cautionary statement turned prevailing views on forest conservation inside out when it was published in an essay titled " The Empty Forest," in...
Read more
forestsnews.cifor.org
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VIDEO: CONSERVATION IS DEVELOPMENT
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The above video illustrates USAID's vision of conserving biodiversity for sustainable economic growth, food security, and health.
WATCH
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ENVIRONMENT NEWS AND OPINION ROUNDUP
(Articles and headlines are taken directly from the sources cited)
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OPINION: Experts warn risks of zoonotic disease spillover where many animals live close to humans
The Covid-19 pandemic is raging worldwide. Although the precise origins of the disease remain unproven, there are strong indications of a wild animal source and a direct link to wildlife trade in China. Even if evidence points elsewhere in future, the magnitude of the current outbreak places under an intense spotlight concerns raised by zoonotic disease experts over many decades about human health risks linked to wild animal trade in the increasingly inter-connected global economy. Source: The Standard.
Read more.
Indonesia’s wildlife markets are “like a cafeteria for animal pathogens,” but they have resisted efforts to close even as China has shut its own markets over coronavirus fears. Source: The New York Times.
Read more
.
“We must not let a forest full of trees fool us into believing that all is well.”
Kent Redford’s cautionary statement turned prevailing views on forest conservation inside out when it was published in an essay titled ”
The Empty Forest
,” in BioScience journal almost 30 years ago. Source: Forest News.
Read more.
Conservationists have greeted China’s recent clampdown on wild animal hunting and consumption with enthusiasm.
The government made the move based on scientific
theories
that COVID-19 was transmitted from a pangolin or a bat to humans in a market in the city of Wuhan. Source: Forest News.
Read more
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Genetic sequences of viruses isolated from the scaly animals are 99% similar to that of the circulating virus — but the work is yet to be formally published. Source: Nature.
Read more
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Game reserves that rely on tourism are running out of money to protect the animals. Source: Aljazeera.
Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a profound crisis for conservation efforts in eastern and southern Africa as a result of the sudden cessation of all international travel in a region where nature-based tourism and conservation are closely interdependent. Source: MongaBay.
Read more.
As the city of Nairobi continues to grow around the park, it’s encroaching on the habitat of not only the lions but the lions’ prey…. Conservationists say this will increase the chances of lions leaving the park and countering humans. Source: New Citizen.
Watch
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USAID Kenya and East Africa Environment | www.usaid.gov/east-africa-regional/environment
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