Survey of wild birds pathogens and risk analysis for emerging diseases in Brazil

• Grant number: 25/02386-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: April 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo Augusto Dias
• Grantee: Guilherme Nunes Machado
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The coordination of different institutions and actors is essential for the prevention of future pandemics. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, has revealed a major deficiency in centralizing efforts for epidemiological surveillance of the virus, as well as combating the disease. Contact between wild animals and humans is one of the main triggers of pandemics and, especially in places of high biodiversity, monitoring emerging pathogens is extremely important. In this sense, an alternative to centralize the different parties involved in order to monitor pathogens and prevent diseases are biorepositories, i.e. collections of biological materials, as well as their data and metadata. Brazil is considered a megadiverse country, which places it in a key context for epidemiological surveillance. The National Biodiversity Biorepository (BIONABIO), an initiative that aims to create a national collaboration network to promote epidemiological surveillance of emerging diseases in wildlife in Brazil, connects research institutions, wildlife veterinary services, wildlife screening centers (CETAS), biological collections and curatorships, etc., from collection, storage, transport and diagnosis, to surveillance of emerging pathogens. BIONABIO is a project of the Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Animal Health of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechny at USP, funded by the Todos pela Saúde Institute and FAPESP, through the Belmont Forum.This project aims to survey pathogens affecting Brazilian birds and execute a risk analysis to prioritize the pathogens targeted for surveillance in the BIONABIO network.