Scialog: Mitigating Zoonotic Threats Initiative Off to Great Start
Research Corporation for Science Advancement launched its newest Scialog initiative, Mitigating Zoonotic Threats, with a virtual meeting September 30-October 1, 2021. It is sponsored by RCSA and two U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies working together at the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility — the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS). The initiative was in the planning stages even before the SARS‑CoV‑2 epidemic began.
“Even without the pandemic, we all recognize that infectious diseases crossing from animals to humans is a serious threat that will require a concerted research effort by people from many different fields coming together,” said RCSA President & CEO Daniel Linzer. “The bold ideas and partnerships developed through Scialog could lead to significant advances.”
Scialog is short for “science + dialog.” Created in 2010 by RCSA, the Scialog format supports research by stimulating intensive interdisciplinary conversation and community building around a scientific theme of global importance. Participating scientists from the U.S. and Canada discuss challenges and gaps in current knowledge, build community around visionary goals, and form teams to write proposals for high-impact projects based on innovative ideas that emerge at the conference.
The three-year initiative brought together 75 participants including early career researchers, senior scientists, and guests from other philanthropies and organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Participants come from a variety of disciplines — biology, chemistry, environmental science, computer modeling, ecology, epidemiology, physics, public health and veterinary science — and have specialized interests in multiple systems such as vaccines, wildlife, domesticated animals, viruses, bacteria, parasites, detection, and public health.
Jeff Silverstein, Deputy Administrator, USDA Agricultural Research Service, said that given the importance of agriculture and the food supply to the economy, the USDA is looking to enhance partnerships between USDA and academic scientists. These partnerships will be assets as the department establishes the new $1.25 billion National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan, Kansas. The facility plans to begin operations in 2024.
“Seventy percent of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic,” Silverstein said. “With habitat destruction, changes in climate, and increasing movement of people, animals, insects and things, this all increases the chances of future pandemics. With this Scialog, we are hoping to invigorate and stimulate the next generation of scientists to integrate and connect around the area of zoonotic disease.”
Keynote speaker Christine Johnson of the EpiCenter for Disease Dynamics, University of California, Davis, set the stage for discussions with her talk, Catalyzing Innovation for Surveillance of Emerging Pandemic Threats in an Era of Accelerated Global Change.
She said virtually all emerging infectious diseases originate in wild animals and that although viruses cross over into domesticated animals and the human population frequently, most of those events are neither detected nor reported.
“Clinically recognized clusters of disease that show up on the radar are just the tip of the iceberg,” she said, because spillover often occurs in remote settings where access to healthcare may be limited. Combined with limited detection techniques, this has kept identifying the sources of disease and the processes that promote transmission into susceptible human populations “shrouded in mystery.”
She said better and earlier surveillance is most needed at the frontlines of animal-human interface where diseases are most likely to emerge — people with close interactions with animals, especially in rural and remote settings.
The environment can play a huge role in emerging infectious diseases, Johnson said.
She said wildlife species that are threatened or in decline due to exploitation and fragmented habitat are creating "the perfect epidemiological setting for disease transmission.”
“We are living in a very altered landscape,” she said. “When there’s landscape change, species at the margins have to move,” increasing opportunity for contact with people.
This dynamic underscores the urgent need to consider “the entire picture of disease transmission among the pathogen, host and environment,” Johnson said. “We can’t stay siloed in the work that we do."
The current pandemic has highlighted how little we know and many of the major gaps that are limiting preparedness, she said. In the pandemic era that is now upon us, Johnson urged scientists to work together to catalyze scientific breakthroughs, leverage new technologies, share information, and form meaningful international collaborations.
After Johnson’s keynote, participants broke into a series of small-group discussions to brainstorm and identify opportunities for novel, collaborative research. Facilitators included: Peter Dorhout, Iowa State University; Curt Horvath, Northwestern University; Matt Erdman, USDA/APHIS; Rebecca Garabed, Ohio State University; Linda Detwiler, USDA/APHIS; Michael Wimberly, University of Oklahoma; Amy Vincent, USDA/ARS; and Wilfred van der Donk, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Multidisciplinary teams will submit proposals for seed funding a week following the conference, and awards are expected to be announced later this fall.
Erdman, Risk Manager, APHIS Center for Veterinary Biologics, said the good ideas coming from the two-day conference are just the start of this initiative.
“The first stage of this Scialog has been very inspirational,” he said. “The multi-disciplinary expertise and collaborations are the exact approach that is needed to address today’s complex challenges. The possible partnerships, ideas, and solutions that could come from this initiative are very exciting.”
