The ‘One Health’ approach, advocated by the European Union and the World Health Organization to prepare for future pandemics, is at the heart of a scientific opinion from EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) on the SARS-CoV-2 virus in farmed and wild animals and the risks to public health, presented to MEPs on the COVI Special Committee on Tuesday 28 February.
“If we’re talking about pandemic preparedness, we have to talk about viruses”, said Dr Frank Verdonck, EFSA’s Head of Biological Hazards & Animal Health and Welfare Unit, noting that Covid-19 is a human disease that is transmitted from humans to animals, but that there can be subsequent transmission from animals to mink, as has been observed in intensive farming, particularly in cages.
EFSA’s scientific opinion, published the day before, highlights that among farmed animals, the American mink is the most likely to be infected by humans or animals and to transmit SARS-CoV-2. The introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into mink farms is usually via infected humans.
This can be controlled by systematic testing of people entering the farms and adequate biosecurity, said Dr Verdonck. According to EFSA, the most appropriate current approach to mink surveillance is confirmation of outbreaks on the basis of suspicion, examination of dead or clinically ill animals in the event of increased mortality or positive farm staff, and genomic surveillance for virus variants. Genomic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 has identified mink-specific clusters that can spread to the human population.
Among wild animals (including zoo animals), it is mainly carnivores, great apes and white-tailed deer have been reported to be naturally infected with SARS-CoV-2. In the EU, no cases of infection in wildlife have been reported so far. EFSA advises proper disposal of human waste to reduce the risk of spreading SARS-CoV-2 to wildlife and to minimise contact with wild animals, especially if they are sick or dead. Bats, on the other hand, need to be monitored, as they are a natural host for many coronaviruses.
“The second virus we should be interested in is Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), because we are facing an unprecedented epidemic in Europe and other parts of the world”, said Dr Verdonck.
He said that an outbreak of avian influenza in mink has shown genetic adaptation in the mammal, “as recently noted by the WHO”, with cases in Latin America, for example.
To ensure that the EU is prepared, EFSA publishes a quarterly report on the situation in Europe and the rest of the world. Dr Verdonck said, “Based on the One Health approach , we are monitoring the situation in animals and in humans. The data collected is available online on the EFSA website”.
In addition to the wild bird Migration Mapping Tool, which helps to visualise the risks, EFSA is launching an early warning system that will be able to inform Member States and allow them to identify regions in their territory that present a high level of risk of an HPAI outbreak.
He warned that “human migration, population development, resource scarcity, and climate change all influence the characteristics and prevalence factors of pathogens, and this can lead to large-scale outbreaks”.
At the request of the European Commission, EFSA recently established a list of 10 priority diseases for One Health surveillance (see EUROPE 13099/5).
See the new EFSA scientific opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/5j1 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)