Optimising forest benefits whilst minimising impacts of emerging zoonotic diseases: co-developing an interdisciplinary tool for forests in India
Lead Research Organisation:
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Department Name: Biodiversity (Wallingford)
Abstract
Vast numbers of poor people in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) depend on healthy ecosystems for their livelihoods and food security. In India, around 300 million people depend on forests that are badly degraded by human settlement, agricultural expansion, and over-grazing. When they access food, fuel, fodder and other products from degraded forests, these people risk exposure to harmful pathogens that circulate naturally in wildlife. The ecological balance between diverse wildlife and arthropod vector communities can be altered by forest degradation, but these ecological changes interact with the priorities and behaviour of people in the landscape to determine when and where exposure occurs. Upsurges in human cases of zoonotic diseases (diseases that circulate between animals and humans) in LMICs, like malaria and Leishmaniases, have been linked to deforestation, reforestation or particular forest activities. Knowledge gaps on the role of ecology and sociology in underpinning these changes prevents development of intelligent disease control strategies that allow people to benefit from forests but minimise exposure to disease. Such strategies require cooperation of policy-makers and forest users from across the animal health, human health and forestry sectors, from national and international decision-makers down to village communities, that all interact with the disease system.
By bringing such stakeholders together in a network, along with experts in public and animal health, ecology, epidemiology and social science, this project aims to develop a new inter-disciplinary framework and decision-support tool to reduce health, welfare and livelihood impacts of zoonotic diseases on people that depend on forests in LMICs. It will be developed initially for Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), a fatal haemorrhagic disease of forest populations in India that cycles naturally amongst ticks, rodents and primates.
The research underpinning the tool will include:
1. Mapping of key stakeholders in each sector, their knowledge, needs for decision-support tools and how they are impacted by or impact upon the disease system.
2. Intensive field observation of (i) how the priorities, behaviour and perceptions of disease risk of different forest groups, like traditional hunter-gatherer tribes and farmers, change; (ii) how the numbers and species of wildlife hosts and tick vectors, and the consequent hazard of KFD changes along forest landscape gradients from closed through fragmented to open forest.
3. Matching of historical geographical patterns in human cases of KFD with environmental patterns within models to disentangle social, climate and forest landscape drivers across the affected region in India.
A geographical decision support tool, integrating this knowledge, will map how disease risk varies across forest landscapes, from which activities and by which forest user groups, with other constraints on disease management, availability and access to health care and medicines.
The project will reduce impacts of KFD on health, welfare and livelihoods by increasing awareness of disease risk in forest users, especially tribal groups that harvest non-timber forest products and farmers that graze livestock. These groups will further benefit from specific guidance on (i) the key forest locations and habitats, seasons and activities, and (ii) why and how to access medicine and other protective measures. The decision-support tool will help disease managers to better target vaccination and risk communication efforts towards the forest communities that are most at risk and will inform planning of land use in forests.
The project platform and approach of co-developing research and decision support tools on zoonotic diseases with stakeholders across sectors, accounting for their needs and underlying ecological and social processes, will build significant capacity in science, policy and practitioners to respond to emerging global threats.
By bringing such stakeholders together in a network, along with experts in public and animal health, ecology, epidemiology and social science, this project aims to develop a new inter-disciplinary framework and decision-support tool to reduce health, welfare and livelihood impacts of zoonotic diseases on people that depend on forests in LMICs. It will be developed initially for Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), a fatal haemorrhagic disease of forest populations in India that cycles naturally amongst ticks, rodents and primates.
The research underpinning the tool will include:
1. Mapping of key stakeholders in each sector, their knowledge, needs for decision-support tools and how they are impacted by or impact upon the disease system.
2. Intensive field observation of (i) how the priorities, behaviour and perceptions of disease risk of different forest groups, like traditional hunter-gatherer tribes and farmers, change; (ii) how the numbers and species of wildlife hosts and tick vectors, and the consequent hazard of KFD changes along forest landscape gradients from closed through fragmented to open forest.
3. Matching of historical geographical patterns in human cases of KFD with environmental patterns within models to disentangle social, climate and forest landscape drivers across the affected region in India.
A geographical decision support tool, integrating this knowledge, will map how disease risk varies across forest landscapes, from which activities and by which forest user groups, with other constraints on disease management, availability and access to health care and medicines.
The project will reduce impacts of KFD on health, welfare and livelihoods by increasing awareness of disease risk in forest users, especially tribal groups that harvest non-timber forest products and farmers that graze livestock. These groups will further benefit from specific guidance on (i) the key forest locations and habitats, seasons and activities, and (ii) why and how to access medicine and other protective measures. The decision-support tool will help disease managers to better target vaccination and risk communication efforts towards the forest communities that are most at risk and will inform planning of land use in forests.
The project platform and approach of co-developing research and decision support tools on zoonotic diseases with stakeholders across sectors, accounting for their needs and underlying ecological and social processes, will build significant capacity in science, policy and practitioners to respond to emerging global threats.
Technical Summary
Vast numbers of poor people in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) depend on healthy forest ecosystems for their livelihoods and food security. In India, around 300 million people depend on forests that are badly degraded. Forest habitats in these countries are a major source of food, fuel, livestock fodder and other non-timber forest products but also of emerging infections. Upsurges in zoonotic diseases (e.g. malaria, Leishmaniases) have been linked to deforestation or re-afforestation and to forest usage in LMICs but the social and ecological mechanisms underlying these changes are unknown.
Advancing the global One Health initiative, involving stakeholders across public health, animal health and forestry, this project develops a novel interdisciplinary framework and decision-support tool to understand how forests can best be used to enhance livelihoods whilst minimising exposure to zoonotic disease. The framework is developed initially for the tick-borne Kyasanur Forest Disease Virus that causes debilitating and fatal haemorrhagic human disease in forests in India. The tool will be framed by cross-sectoral, multi-scale mapping of stakeholder knowledge, human sensitivity to disease impacts and forest-user needs for decision-support. The links between forest structure and (a) the human behaviour, priorities and perceptions of risk that govern exposure and (b) the distribution and infection rates of wildlife host and tick that govern disease hazard will be quantified, along fragmented forest gradients. This research will generate spatial decision-support tools that help disease managers to better target risk communication, vaccination and prevention measures as well as guidance for individual forest user groups on forest locations and habitats, seasons and activities that pose the most risk of exposure. Wider application of this inter-disciplinary framework to emerging forest zoonotic diseases in LMICs will be explored with the global research community.
Advancing the global One Health initiative, involving stakeholders across public health, animal health and forestry, this project develops a novel interdisciplinary framework and decision-support tool to understand how forests can best be used to enhance livelihoods whilst minimising exposure to zoonotic disease. The framework is developed initially for the tick-borne Kyasanur Forest Disease Virus that causes debilitating and fatal haemorrhagic human disease in forests in India. The tool will be framed by cross-sectoral, multi-scale mapping of stakeholder knowledge, human sensitivity to disease impacts and forest-user needs for decision-support. The links between forest structure and (a) the human behaviour, priorities and perceptions of risk that govern exposure and (b) the distribution and infection rates of wildlife host and tick that govern disease hazard will be quantified, along fragmented forest gradients. This research will generate spatial decision-support tools that help disease managers to better target risk communication, vaccination and prevention measures as well as guidance for individual forest user groups on forest locations and habitats, seasons and activities that pose the most risk of exposure. Wider application of this inter-disciplinary framework to emerging forest zoonotic diseases in LMICs will be explored with the global research community.
Planned Impact
Health, welfare and economic development impact:
The proposed research addresses an area of economic development and welfare relevant to Low and/or Middle Income Countries (LMICs) where threats from emerging zoonotic diseases in forest ecosystems present a risk to human health, well-being and livelihoods. The majority of poor communities in LMICs depend on healthy forest ecosystems for livelihoods and food security. Forest habitats in these countries are a significant source of food, fuel, livestock fodder and other non-timber forest products but also of emerging infections. Upsurges in zoonotic diseases have been linked to deforestation or re-afforestation in LMICs and to forest usage. Forest communities are rendered even more vulnerable by their remoteness from healthcare infrastructure.
This project will improve the economic development, health and welfare of the people who depend on forests ecosystems in India by developing a novel interdisciplinary tool to understand how forests can be used sustainably to maximise ecosystem benefits whilst minimising exposure to zoonotic disease. The framework will be developed initially for Kyasanur Forest Disease Virus that causes debilitating and fatal haemorrhagic disease in forest communities. The project will scope out how the framework could be generalised to understand trade-offs between infectious disease burdens, trade, and forest ecosystem benefits in different global contexts. Key novel elements are: co-production of decision supports tools with actors and beneficiaries across the public health, animal health and forest policy sectors at landscape to national scales; joint interdisciplinary examination analysis of ecological and social processes; quantification of links between forest structure and habitat use by hosts, non-hosts and vectors.
Scientific impact:
This project will increase international scientific collaboration, post-doctoral training and global scientific understanding of threats from emerging zoonotic diseases in forest ecosystems. By developing novel inter-disciplinary methods for understanding ecological and social processes underpinning disease impacts and for integrating important actors, behaviours and priorities across human health, animal health and forest sectors, it will significantly advance the global One Health initiative. The project will build and integrate capacity in ecological and epidemiological modelling, tick vector ecology and taxonomy, forest remote sensing, participatory methodology in both India and the UK. It will provide novel data resources (tick vector communities, forest remote sensing and GIS farmer grazing routes) to underpin future research on forest zoonoses.
Policy impact:
'Silo' thinking in policy sectors often results in a disconnected and piecemeal approach to disease management, and a lack of mainstreaming of actions. We will address this by identifying and engaging across the public health, animal health and forest policy sectors. Our approach of jointly framing the problem and solutions from the start of the project with these policy stakeholders, and maintaining strong engagement throughout, will pave the way for cross-sectoral integration in this and future projects. We will ensure that the research we produce is not only tailored and relevant to the range of stakeholders affected by and affecting zoonotic diseases, but importantly research will be credible and legitimate, building on the knowledge and needs of stakeholders across sectors and scales. Stakeholder collaboration and engagement will be facilitated through a range of activities (multi-stakeholder workshops, interviews, focus groups, one to ones). We expect this strong focus on cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary (including co-production of knowledge) working will result in research that is more robust and have greater impact, but will also strengthen the science, policy and practitioners capacity.
The proposed research addresses an area of economic development and welfare relevant to Low and/or Middle Income Countries (LMICs) where threats from emerging zoonotic diseases in forest ecosystems present a risk to human health, well-being and livelihoods. The majority of poor communities in LMICs depend on healthy forest ecosystems for livelihoods and food security. Forest habitats in these countries are a significant source of food, fuel, livestock fodder and other non-timber forest products but also of emerging infections. Upsurges in zoonotic diseases have been linked to deforestation or re-afforestation in LMICs and to forest usage. Forest communities are rendered even more vulnerable by their remoteness from healthcare infrastructure.
This project will improve the economic development, health and welfare of the people who depend on forests ecosystems in India by developing a novel interdisciplinary tool to understand how forests can be used sustainably to maximise ecosystem benefits whilst minimising exposure to zoonotic disease. The framework will be developed initially for Kyasanur Forest Disease Virus that causes debilitating and fatal haemorrhagic disease in forest communities. The project will scope out how the framework could be generalised to understand trade-offs between infectious disease burdens, trade, and forest ecosystem benefits in different global contexts. Key novel elements are: co-production of decision supports tools with actors and beneficiaries across the public health, animal health and forest policy sectors at landscape to national scales; joint interdisciplinary examination analysis of ecological and social processes; quantification of links between forest structure and habitat use by hosts, non-hosts and vectors.
Scientific impact:
This project will increase international scientific collaboration, post-doctoral training and global scientific understanding of threats from emerging zoonotic diseases in forest ecosystems. By developing novel inter-disciplinary methods for understanding ecological and social processes underpinning disease impacts and for integrating important actors, behaviours and priorities across human health, animal health and forest sectors, it will significantly advance the global One Health initiative. The project will build and integrate capacity in ecological and epidemiological modelling, tick vector ecology and taxonomy, forest remote sensing, participatory methodology in both India and the UK. It will provide novel data resources (tick vector communities, forest remote sensing and GIS farmer grazing routes) to underpin future research on forest zoonoses.
Policy impact:
'Silo' thinking in policy sectors often results in a disconnected and piecemeal approach to disease management, and a lack of mainstreaming of actions. We will address this by identifying and engaging across the public health, animal health and forest policy sectors. Our approach of jointly framing the problem and solutions from the start of the project with these policy stakeholders, and maintaining strong engagement throughout, will pave the way for cross-sectoral integration in this and future projects. We will ensure that the research we produce is not only tailored and relevant to the range of stakeholders affected by and affecting zoonotic diseases, but importantly research will be credible and legitimate, building on the knowledge and needs of stakeholders across sectors and scales. Stakeholder collaboration and engagement will be facilitated through a range of activities (multi-stakeholder workshops, interviews, focus groups, one to ones). We expect this strong focus on cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary (including co-production of knowledge) working will result in research that is more robust and have greater impact, but will also strengthen the science, policy and practitioners capacity.
Publications
Samrat A
(2024)
Producing context specific land cover and land use maps of human-modified tropical forest landscapes for infectious disease applications
in Science of The Total Environment
Asaaga FA
(2021)
'None of my ancestors ever discussed this disease before!' How disease information shapes adaptive capacity of marginalised rural populations in India.
in PLoS neglected tropical diseases
Burthe SJ
(2021)
Reviewing the ecological evidence base for management of emerging tropical zoonoses: Kyasanur Forest Disease in India as a case study.
in PLoS neglected tropical diseases
Purse BV
(2020)
Predicting disease risk areas through co-production of spatial models: The example of Kyasanur Forest Disease in India's forest landscapes.
in PLoS neglected tropical diseases
Asaaga FA
(2021)
Co-production of knowledge as part of a OneHealth approach to better control zoonotic diseases
in PLoS Global Public Health
Asaaga FA
(2021)
The role of social vulnerability in improving interventions for neglected zoonotic diseases: the example of Kyasanur Forest Disease in India
in PLoS Global Public Health
Asaaga FA
(2022)
Co-production of knowledge as part of a OneHealth approach to better control zoonotic diseases.
in PLOS global public health
| Description | The key findings of the MonkeyFeverRisk project are that: - Risk of spillover of Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD) to people is highest in diverse agro-forestry landscapes that are created when moist evergreen forest is replaced with plantations and paddy cultivation. - Risk of human exposure to infected ticks is not restricted to forests but extends to forest edges, plantations, houses and gardens and involves other tick species as well as Haemophysalis spinigera. - Risks and impacts of KFD are highest for socially vulnerable, marginalized groups that are exposed to ticks through occupations in forests, plantations, and crop fields. Aside from mortality, impacts include long-term morbidity issues, loss of income and reduced movement within forested areas. - Key barriers to effective mitigation within these communities include lack of information about KFD, low efficacy of and mistrust in current vaccines and tick repellents and livelihood concerns. - Given the strong linkage between livelihoods and forests in these communities, policies banning people from entering forests in response to KFD outbreaks are likely to have very adverse effects on their livelihoods and wellbeing and the effectiveness of KFD interventions. - Risk maps for KFD and a geographical decision support tool co-produced during the project are available for the use of decision makers through the Virus Diagnostic Laboratory, Department of Health and Family Welfare Services, Shivamogga. Tick information cards, summarising the risks from ticks and tick-borne diseases and available protection measures, were produced and distributed to local communities across three affected States and integrated into the KFD management manual of the local health department. The ecological evidence base for current KFD management was assessed and priority knowledge gaps and future management options identified. We also identified management activities that were not well supported by scientific evidence. Key future research priorities identified include better understanding the role of cattle and monkeys in transmission; the vulnerability and coping strategies of key affected communities; and the effectiveness of current and novel potential tick repellents and vaccines; including traditional remedies used by communities. We also used an approach called co-production to co-develop research and decision support tools with stakeholders in Public health, Animal health, Environment and Agriculture that interact with the zoonotic disease systems. We have identified some of the barriers and facilitators of cross-sectoral co-production for management of zoonotic disease and development of tools, to provide a blue print for extension of this approach to other contexts. |
| Exploitation Route | The inter-disciplinary ecosystems approach of jointly studying ecological and social factors underpinning risk, vulnerability and adaptation to zoonotic diseases, accounting for the complex landscape of actors and policies, is applicable to zoonotic disease systems in other contexts. The approach of co-producing decision support tools and research with cross-sectoral stakeholders is useful to apply to zoonotic disease systems in other contexts. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment,Healthcare,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism |
| URL | https://www.monkeyfeverrisk.ceh.ac.uk/ |
| Description | Key impacts are: Co-produced risk maps and online decision support tools to inform spatial targetting of Kyasanur Forest Disease management, including vaccination and awareness raising activites. These are in operational use by the Virus Diagnostic Lab, Shimoga and Department of Health and Family Welfare Services, Karnataka and ownership has been transferred. Tailored risk guidance (wallet-sized information cards) for health workers and communities on risks from ticks and tick-borne diseases, as well as available protection measures, were produced and have been integrated into local health department manuals and cards in several local languages. The ecological evidence base for Kyasanur Forest Disease management was assessed between scientists and practitioners, and knowledge gaps and opportunities for improved management identified. Significant local capacity was built in ecological sampling, tick identification (DHFWS entomologists as well as researchers), pathogen diagnosis, participatory methods, disease modelling, earth observation, and inter-disciplinary One Health approaches. Impacts on policy and decision making and management guidelines for KFD have been realised through team member inclusion in national and state level KFD technical committees and authorship teams for the updated KFD manual (2021). |
| First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
| Sector | Environment,Healthcare |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Attendance by project partners and PDRAs at Technical Advisory Committees on Kyasanur Forest Disease, January 2019 |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Impact | Project partners and PDRAs attended a State Level Technical Advisory Committee meeting during the recent outbreak of Kyasanur Forest Disease in Karnataka on 7th February 2019 held at Directorate of Department of Health and Family Welfare Services, Bengaluru and involving World Heath Organisation representatives. The purpose of these meetings was to obtain in-depth information on the present KFD management strategy and ways in which it could be improved. Research project members contributed to changes in policy concerning e.g. ensuring that all case data and locations collected in different laboratories across Karnataka are shared, compiled and reported back to by the Virus Diagnostic Lab Shimoga to enable affected districts to have full knowledge of their infection status to inform their management, that aerial distance rather than road distance of 5km around a postive case or sample location should be used to target sensitisation and vaccination efforts. |
| Description | Desk-based Shiny App spatial Decision Support Tool provided to the Health Department to aid targeting of surveillance and awareness raising activities |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Impact | The prototype Desk-based Shiny App spatial Decision Support Tool was provided to the Virus Diagnostic Laboratory, through the project PDRA, Dr Darshan Naryan, and has been used in the 2019 and 2020 season to target tick surveillance and awareness raising activities in Shivamogga district and selected other districts in Karnataka. This has led to detection of additional areas of virus circulation, outwith the area in which human cases are occurring, such that more comprehensive vaccination coverage can be achieved. This should decrease the incidence of severe cases of KFD. This is part of a pilotting process that will see the tool refined and rolled out to a wider set of cross-state, cross-sectoral end-users in 2020/2021. |
| Description | M Chanda (NIVEDI) provided expert training at South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation training event: Laboratory Biosafety and Biosecurity for Handling Transboundary Animal Diseases and Zoonotic Emerging Pathogens" at ICAR-NIVEDI, Bengaluru from 19-24th August 2019 |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Membership of the KFD operational guidelines framing committee by Dr Darshan Naryanaswamy - 12th-13th May 2020 |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
| Description | TIck Information Cards, raising awareness of risks from ticks and personal protection measures, distributed to health workers and incorporated into new KFD manual |
| Geographic Reach | Asia |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| URL | https://www.monkeyfeverrisk.ceh.ac.uk/kfd |
| Description | Tick Information Cards for awareness and prevention of tick bites, circulated to ground-level health workers in KFD-affected areas |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| URL | https://www.monkeyfeverrisk.ceh.ac.uk/kfd |
| Description | GCRF Collective Fund Health & Context project: IndiaZooRisk+: Using OneHealth approaches to understand and co-develop interventions for zoonotic diseases affecting forest communities in India |
| Amount | £2,060,164 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | MR/T029846/1 |
| Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2021 |
| End | 12/2024 |
| Description | Integrating participatory approaches and traditional models to strengthen One Health responses to zoonotic diseases in India's changing environments - DFID/ESRC/MRC/Wellcome Trust Health Systems Initiative |
| Amount | £201,877 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | MR/S012893/1 |
| Organisation | Medical Research Council (MRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2019 |
| End | 04/2021 |
| Title | Data from: Predicting disease risk areas through co-production of spatial models: the example of Kyasanur Forest Disease in India's forest landscapes |
| Description | This data package includes spatial environmental and social layers for Shivamogga District, Karnataka, India that were considered as potential predictors of patterns in human cases of Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD). KFD is a fatal tick-borne viral haemorrhagic disease of humans, that is spreading across degraded forest ecosystems in India. The layers encompass a range of fifteen metrics of topography, land use and land use change, livestock and human population density and public health resources for Shivamogga District across 1km and 2km study grids. These spatial proxies for risk factors for KFD that had been jointly identified between cross-sectoral stakeholders and researchers through a co-production approach. Shivamogga District is the District longest affected by KFD in south India. The layers are distributed as 1km and 2km GeoTiffs in Albers equal area conic projection. For KFD, spatial models incorporating these layers identified characteristics of forest-plantation landscapes at higher risk for human KFD. These layers will be useful for modelling spatial patterns in other environmentally sensitive infectious diseases and biodiversity within the district. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.tb2rbnzx5 |
| Title | Data from: Predicting disease risk areas through co-production of spatial models: the example of Kyasanur Forest Disease in India's forest landscapes |
| Description | This data package includes spatial environmental and social layers for Shivamogga District, Karnataka, India that were considered as potential predictors of patterns in human cases of Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD). KFD is a fatal tick-borne viral haemorrhagic disease of humans, that is spreading across degraded forest ecosystems in India. The layers encompass a range of fifteen metrics of topography, land use and land use change, livestock and human population density and public health resources for Shivamogga District across 1km and 2km study grids. These spatial proxies for risk factors for KFD that had been jointly identified between cross-sectoral stakeholders and researchers through a co-production approach. Shivamogga District is the District longest affected by KFD in south India. The layers are distributed as 1km and 2km GeoTiffs in Albers equal area conic projection. For KFD, spatial models incorporating these layers identified characteristics of forest-plantation landscapes at higher risk for human KFD. These layers will be useful for modelling spatial patterns in other environmentally sensitive infectious diseases and biodiversity within the district. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Continued use of the database/datasets into 2021/2022 |
| URL | http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.tb2rbnzx5 |
| Title | Land cover map, Shimoga district, India |
| Description | Map is derived from satellite image mosaic of Landsat TM imagery, spatial resolution: 30m, image time period: 2016-10-20 to 2017-03-22 (cloud free mosaic is produced by taking for each pixel the median value of all cloud free observations for that pixel). A random Forest classification approach was applied, training and validation points were identified by local expert, using existing maps and identifying suitable points using Google Earth. 8 land cover classes: Wet evergreen forest, Moist deciduous forest, Dry deciduous forest, Plantation, Agricultural Field, Fallow Land, Waterbody, Built-up Creator: Munees Waran, ATREE, Bangalore |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | As part of the project the map provides crucial information on the landscape patterns of the district, enabling field site selection. The map is an input to the Generalised Linear Mixed Models which will be used to identify and map of environmental hazard (i.e. human contact rate with KFD infected ticks). The map represents the most up to date and spatially detailed land cover map for the district. When made available to others it will become an important source of information on the current land cover distribution in the district. |
| Title | Land cover map, Chamrajnagar district, India |
| Description | Map is derived from satellite image mosaic of Landsat TM imagery, spatial resolution: 30m, image time period: 2017-02- 03 (single scene). A random Forest classification approach was applied, training and validation points were identified by local expert, using existing maps and identifying suitable points using Google Earth. 8 land cover classes: Moist deciduous forest, Dry deciduous forest, Grassland, Plantation, Agricultural Field, Fallow Land, Waterbody, Outcrop Creator: Munees Waran, ATREE, Bangalore |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | As part of the project the map provides crucial information on the landscape patterns of the district, enabling field site selection. The map is an input to the Generalised Linear Mixed Models which will be used to identify and map of environmental hazard (i.e. human contact rate with KFD infected ticks). The map represents the most up to date and spatially detailed land cover map for the district. When made available to others it will become an important source of information on the current land cover distribution in the district. |
| Title | Land cover map, Sindhudurg district, India |
| Description | Map is derived from satellite image mosaic of Landsat TM imagery, spatial resolution: 30m, image time period: 2017-02-02 to 2017-05-28 (cloud free mosaic is produced by taking for each pixel the median value of all cloud free observations for that pixel). A random Forest classification approach was applied, training and validation points were identified by local expert, using existing maps and identifying suitable points using Google Earth. 7 land cover classes: Moist deciduous forest, Dry deciduous forest, Woodland savanna, Mangrove, Agricultural field, Fallow land, Water body Creator: Munees Waran (ATREE, Bangalore) |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | As part of the project the map provides crucial information on the landscape patterns of the district, enabling field site selection. The map is an input to the Generalised Linear Mixed Models which will be used to identify and map of environmental hazard (i.e. human contact rate with KFD infected ticks). The map represents the most up to date and spatially detailed land cover map for the district. When made available to others it will become an important source of information on the current land cover distribution in the district. |
| Title | Multiscale stakeholder mapping |
| Description | The database forms part of a multiscale mapping process of key stakeholders involved in the governance of land use, and human and animal health in forest ecosystems. The main purpose of the mapping process is to identify actors and polices that impact on the disease system in each sector; identify actors who hold knowledge on the disease system in each sector; and identify potential beneficiaries of the research and of spatial decision support tools. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2017 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The stakeholder mapping database identifies members of a new inter-disciplinary network of scientists, human and animal health experts, and government departments. This network is critical for identifying knowledge gaps, datasets and needs for spatial decision support tools regarding emerging zoonotic diseases in India. |
| Title | Preliminary risk map for Kyasanur Forest Disease in Shimoga |
| Description | Historical patterns in human case data were compiled for Shimoga district (2014-2018) and analysed in relation to key topographical, forest and social characteristics using statistical distribution models. This resulted in maps of predicted probability of presence at a 1km and 2km grid square resolution that indicate the areas of Shimoga district that are most likely to support KFD and how these extend outside of those areas already known to be affected. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | These have been supplied to the Department of Health officials that are currently managing the 2019 outbreak and correctly predicted a substantial proportion of the outbreak sites from 2019. We are now validating these maps with the Health Department so that finalised prediction maps will be available and tailored to their needs for the 2019/2020 outbreak season. We are examining whether this model framework can be applied to other zoonotic diseases circulating in these forest communities. |
| Title | Radar derived seasonal surface water maps for three Indian districts (Shivamogga, Sindhudurg, Wayanad), 2017-2018 |
| Description | Data provided are monthly surface water layers extracted from Sentinel1A SAR data for 3 districts in India (Shivamogga, Sindhudurg, Wayanad) for the year 2017 and 2018. Surface water body layers were mapped using an average monthly threshold value extracted from the image backscatter histogram. The average threshold value excluded the monsoon months due to the difference in water and not water area. The threshold value was slightly lesser than the mean threshold value. The end product was validated using field data which resulted in user and producer accuracies. Monthly surface water body layers were not produced for a few months due to the non-availability of Sentinel 1 data. The work was supported by MRC, AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC and NERC [grant number MR/P024335/1] and NERC - SUNRISE project [grant number NE/R000131/1] |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | These data layers will be available to researchers and practitioners in India who require information on surface water availability for biodiversity and health applications. The radar processing and ground-truthing methodology is also of value for other researchers mapping surface water in other contexts. |
| URL | https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/3c23fea1-5b27-4b01-b9ef-fc13346cfedc |
| Description | "3 UK scientists visit villages to research on monkey fever" National Newspaper Article, Times of India, January 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This article followed an interview with ToI journalist highlighted the risks of KFD and the project approaches of looking at ecological and social risk factors. It highlighted the preliminary risk mapping work and inferred types of landscape that are at highest risk due to their mosaic of crop and forest types. It unfortunately neglects to mention the contribution of the wide array of Indian institutes and scientists involved in the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://m.timesofindia.com/city/bengaluru/uk-scientists-visit-villages-to-research-on-monkey-fever/a... |
| Description | "KFD:Infected people can't transmit it to others" National newspaper article in The Deccan Herald, India |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a brief article following an email exchange with a DH journalist that highlighted some of the key aims of the project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.deccanherald.com/state/kfd-fact-you-will-infected-713057.html |
| Description | "Monkey Fever in Shivamogga: Kyasanur's ticking time bomb" National Newspaper Article - The Hindu, India, January 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Following interviews between the journalist and multiple Co-investigators and field team members this newspaper article highlighted the fieldwork campaign and how it addresses the potential roles of ticks, alternative hosts and livestock in transmission as well as the social factors that underpin exposure. It also highlighted our preliminary risk mapping work and how this was contributing to understanding potential areas of further spread during the outbreak season. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/kyasanurs-ticking-time-bomb/article26093497.ece |
| Description | Conference presentation: Asaaga, F.A., Oommen, M.A., Chandarana, R., Young, J.C., Purse, B.V. Policy drivers of zoonotic disease vulnerability and interventions. European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health, Liverpool, September 2019. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Festus Asaaga presented a poster on Policy drivers of zoonotic disease vulnerability and interventions at the European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health, Liverpool, September 2019. Dr Asaaga made new contacts and engaged in discussion with researchers and practitioners in other LMICs involved in research and operationalisation of OneHealth policy. This discussion is informing the international peer-reviewed paper that Festus is writing which outlines the barriers and opportunities to strengthening OneHealth policy and research for zoonotic disease in India. It also informs the approaches to OneHealth research and co-production of decision-support tools that we are taking within SUNRISE and aligned project partnerships. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | GreenHub Dialogues |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited by GreenHub for a public talk on social impact of zoonotic diseases. Green Hub is the first youth and community based fellowship and video for change program that uses the visual medium to engage and empower the youth of the region is conservation of biodiversity in the region. Every year 20 youth representing remote areas, urban spaces and diverse communities, get selected for a one year fellowship. During the fellowship they record work related to wildlife, indigenous knowledge, livelihood and social change. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9CNoMObCvo |
| Description | Healthcare workers struggle to balance COVID-19 and Monkey Fever in Karnataka |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Article on The News Minute |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/healthcare-workers-struggle-balance-covid-19-and-monkey-fever-... |
| Description | How Karnataka's Shivamogga became the hotbed of Monkey Fever |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Article on The News Minute |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/how-karnataka-s-shivamogga-became-hotbed-monkey-fever-158272 |
| Description | Inter-departmental sensitisation workshops on KFD in Udupi District, Karnataka, February 2021 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation on the risk factors, symptoms and management of KFD given to local managers across sectors |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Inter-departmental sensitisation workshops on KFD in districts in Karnataka |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The project members including the PDRA at the Department for Health and Family Welfare, Shimoga conducted three inter-departmental sensitisation workshops on KFD in different districts of Karnataka during the outbreak season. These were held on 25th January 2019 at Udupi, attended by 40 Members of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada District, 29th January 2019 at District Health Office Shivamogga attended by around 100 members of Shivamogga and Chickmagaluru District. A second workshop was held in Shivamogga on 22nd February 2019 and gathered another 77 Members of Shivamogga and Chickmagaluru District. The purpose of these workshops was to educate public and animal health and forest management practitioners as well as other local government officials in about the risk of KFD and train them in how to handle the outbreak situation (e.g. vaccination, surveillance, personal protective measures). These workshops also involved meetings with local policy makers and legislative representatives to discuss how to improve KFD preparedness and management and the need for a new vaccines. Initiatives instigated by the project team in this setting included providing standardised protocols and forms for vaccination and human and tick surveillance, raising awareness of the importance of enforcing 5km buffer zones as hotspots around reported human cases and tick or monkey positives, training in mapping human cases and wildlife positives using GPS and visualising within a GIS and integrating coordinates into reporting forms, developing a kit for all Primary Health Centres for use when attending monkey deaths. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Interview by Abi Vanak for broadcast on Pathogen Transmission Pathways (part of Green Hub dialogues series, focussing on the North east region of India) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Interview with the makers of a series called the Green Hub dialogues focussing on the North east region of India, intended to raise awareness of One Health and pathogen dynamics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrkxoC4KZEI |
| Description | Interview for National newspaper, following a presentation to the local politician (Deputy District Commissioner) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This interview conducted by the Indian PI, Dr Hoti, lead to 11 articles in the national ( Deccan Herald, Indian Express, the Hindu) and local (Kannada Prabha, Tunga Taranga Kannada Daily, Prajavani, Udayavani, Vijaya Karnataka, Vikaya Vani) newspapers. It aimed to sensitise policy-makers and the public to the aims of our project, the threat of Kyasanur Forest Disease and the need to understand ecological and social risk factors. It is helping us to establish relationships with key potential beneficiaries and actors across sectors so that we can co-produce decision support tools with them. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/research-project-to-study-causes-for-kfd-outbreak/ar... |
| Description | Invited panel member for Extinction Rebellion "Ask a Scientist Live" Webinar event: "Does our destruction of the natural world increase the spread of disease?" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Panel discussion of drivers of increasing emergence of zoonotic diseases and need for inter-disciplinary approaches and meaningful community engagement through projects like MonkeyFeverRisk. This resulted in a linked article in The Ecologist Magazine highlighting the impacts of global food chains on zoonotic disease emergence https://theecologist.org/2020/may/19/ask-scientist |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc-T0_ynQ8o |
| Description | Invited participation at International Workshop (UKRI-MRC-IAP-Academy of Medical Sciences) on Multidisciplinary research in epidemic preparedness and response |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Beth Purse was able to share learning about barriers and opportunities for multi-disciplinary research into epidemic zoonotic diseases in Lower Middle Income Countries into discussions with other experts, particularly those in the Asia region. These discussions will lead to a report produced by the workshop funding bodies that will outline the research gaps and priorities. The insights from CEH were derived from the NERC SUNRISE review and informant interviews of policy drivers of zoonotic diseases in India (conducted with ATREE and other Indian partners) as well as first-hand experience of leading One-Health cross-sectoral partnerships to understand contextual risk factors and develop decision support tools for zoonotic diseases in India. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited research talk by Abi Vanak: Mad dogs and sick monkeys: Understanding pathogen dynamics in complex systems |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Research talk highlighting the Monkeyfever risk project |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgnwgke0U70 |
| Description | Invited talk and panel member for BBSRC COP-26 Climate change and vector-borne diseases webinar (Dr Beth Purse) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In 2021 the UK hosted the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) In Glasgow. UKRI councils including BBSRC supported and organised activities and events with the intention to inspire and engage people and promote positive climate action. On 21st October 2021 BBSRC hosted an interactive digital event "Climate Change Bites - How climate change is driving the emergence and spread of animals, human and plant diseases transmitted by insects and ticks". This digital event brought together internationally leading experts working on animal, human and plant vector biology and vector borne diseases (VBDs) to jointly discuss a One Health approach to understand, predict, prevent, and respond to these threats. Dr Purse highlighted the need for inter-disciplinary ecosystems approaches to understand climate change impacts on vector-borne diseases. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04Um2SAal08 |
| Description | Invited talk by Abi Vanak: Operationalising OneHealth Science in India to Combat Emerging Zoonoses, 7th October 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This talked discussed the project as an example of integrated Onehealth research and showcase a new National initiative, the National Biodiversity Mission which the project aligns with. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://youtu.be/9gEwgC0krD0 |
| Description | KFD One Health WhatsApp group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The purpose of the WhatsApp Group was to establish a One Health network of scientists, public and animal health and forest management practitioners interested in Kyasanur Forest Disease and other zoonotic diseases. The need for such a network was put forward by the Stakeholders that attended the first Stakeholder Workshop in August 2018 as a way to improve inter-sectoral One Heath collaboration and create a dynamic science-policy interface and WhatsApp was suggested as an appropriate communication mechanism. The group was set up in November by the research project participants at Department for Health and Family Welfare Karnataka that are the key institute involved in the public health response for KFD so that it would be sustainable into the future. The group currently contains 113 members has been used for many purposes including sharing of surveillance and media reports during the recent outbreaks in Karnataka, case tracing, information on public health responses and key officers to contact, sharing of protocols for tick sampling and vaccination and information on appropriate personal protection measures and transmission ecology, raising awareness of field research, inter-departmental sensitisation workshops for KFD, and national and regional research events connected to One Health and tick-borne diseases. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2020 |
| Description | Lower species richness in deforested landscapes tied to high Kyasanur forest disease risk: study |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | News article |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://india.mongabay.com/2021/09/lower-species-richness-in-deforested-landscapes-tied-to-high-kyas... |
| Description | Media Interview by Dr Vanak and Dr Hoti with IndiaSpend: "COVID19-Like Animal-To-Human Diseases Set To Grow, Say Experts. Here's What Can Be Done About It" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interview about the increasing emergence of zoonotic diseases worldwide and within India, highlighting One Health and the MonkeyFeverRisk project as examples of a One Health collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.indiaspend.com/covid19-like-animal-to-human-diseases-set-to-grow-say-experts-heres-what-... |
| Description | Media Interview with the Print online by Dr Prashanth on One Health and links between KFD and deforestation:"There's a zoonotic viral disease in south India and it peaks every summer" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Prashanth gave an interview outlining the One Health approach to KFD management and links between KFD and deforestation highlighted in Purse et al. 2020 PLoS NTD paper |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://theprint.in/health/theres-a-zoonotic-viral-disease-in-south-india-and-it-peaks-every-summer/... |
| Description | Media interview by Abi Vanak: Can biodiversity loss lead to more infectious disease spread? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interview with journalist on One Health and the project |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://india.mongabay.com/2020/04/can-biodiversity-loss-lead-to-more-infectious-disease-spread/ |
| Description | Media interview by Beth Purse with DownToEarth on global burdens and understanding of zoonotic diseases |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interview with journalist resulting in a blog article. This lead to further requests for information on the project from local practitioners and researchers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.downtoearth.org.in/interviews/health/understanding-zoonotic-diseases-humans-are-changing... |
| Description | Media interview by Drs Purse, Vanak, Hoti with IndiaSpend: Why A Western Ghats Initiative Could Have Lessons For Zoonotic Disease Control |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This interview with three project members discussed the drivers of recent emergence of KFD in the Western Ghats and the value of inter-sectoral One Health collaborations for tackling zoonotic diseases. It highlighted the project's published analysis (Purse et al. 2020, PLoS NTDs) of patterns of human spill-over in relation to forest loss and other climate and land use factors and resulting risk maps that could inform future surveillance and awareness raising activities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.indiaspend.com/why-a-western-ghats-initiative-could-have-lessons-for-zoonotic-disease-co... |
| Description | MonkeyFeverRisk project website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A project website was set up to set out the project objectives and publicise the project activities and available tools to researchers, policy makers, disease managers in animal and public health and to the public. It has been used as a reference document in interactions with National and State level media in India and policy makers and to explain the overall framework of the project to research participants and as a depository for reports and tools arising from the project. It went live in November 2018 and has already lead to two National Media enquiries. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019,2020 |
| URL | https://www.monkeyfeverrisk.ceh.ac.uk/ |
| Description | Online UK news story from host organisation introducting project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This news story introduces the One Health inter-disciplinary approach to zoonotic diseases and the importance of tackling zoonotic diseases and developing decision support tools. It highlights the key participants and forming inter-disciplinary network. The news story has prompted requests from students and other researchers about participation and interest from journalists who went on to write newspaper articles |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018 |
| URL | https://www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-media/news/tackling-tick-borne-diseases-forests-india |
| Description | Panel discussion organised by Biodiversity Collaborative & GoI. Biodiversity and Health: One Health and Zoonoses in Vulnerable Communities in India |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited to moderate a discussion with a panel consisting of representatives of researchres, practitioners and community-based organisations/social movements of vulnerable communities on effects of zoonotic diseases on vulnerable communities. Biodiversity and Health: One Health and Zoonoses in Vulnerable Communities in India |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaRdHJwZYt8 |
| Description | Participation as tick expert in training for Kyasanur Forest Disease Rapid Response Teams |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr. N. Balakrishnan working as project consultant in the project trained 40 Rapid Response Teams (Public health, Entomologist, Microbiologists, Veterinarian) of Karnataka on collection of ticks using drag and flag method and other aspects of KFD management from 20-22nd September. This has strengthened tick surveillance in the area which is linked to appropriate targeting of vaccination and awareness raising campaigns in the community. The workshop was covered in media. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation at Ento21 conference - Royal Entomological Society |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Stefanie Schafer invited to give a 20-minute presentation at the Royal Entomological Society's Ento'21 conference. Overview of the MonkeyFeverRisk project and presentation of some of our preliminary findings formed part of the session on Vectors of human and animal pathogens. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.ento2021.com/ |
| Description | Presentation by Dr Purse at the World One Health Congress, November 2020: "Predicting and preparing for zoonotic disease risks through co-production of spatial models" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The presentation "Predicting and preparing for zoonotic disease risks through co-production of spatial models" was part of a session on the ecological and environmental drivers of zoonotic disease risks. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://worldonehealthcongress.org/mega-programme?view=list |
| Description | Presenting a Decision Support tool to State Surveillance Unit through in person visit, November 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Decision Support Tool was presented to the State Surveillance Unit to ascertain how it could inform disease surveillance and to obtain support for rolling out the tool to a broader group of end-users across sectors. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Presenting final Decision Support tool to state and district health officials through virtual meeting, November 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The functionality of the Decision Support Tool was presented to the State and District level officials of the Department for Health and Family Welfare Services and support was gained to transfer the tool to Indian Government Servers and roll out to end-users. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Problem Framing Workshop with cross-sectoral stakeholders in zoonotic disease management |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UK in partnership with Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE) hosted a one day stakeholder workshop on "Optimizing Forest Benefits whilst Minimizing Impacts Of Kyasanur Forest Disease and Other Zoonotic Diseases". The workshop was held in Bengaluru on 16th August 2018. An overarching aim of the MonkeyFeverRisk project is to co-produce decision support tools and guidance based on this improved scientific understanding with the wide-ranging actors and beneficiaries that interact with the disease system across the public health, animal health and forestry sectors. As part of this co-production process, this first 'framing' workshop was held with over 20 experts from different KFD-affected districts and state level officials of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala from the public and animal health, agriculture, forestry and social welfare sectors. The workshop aimed to map stakeholders' knowledge about KFD, prioritizing risk factors for the disease, identifying key policies that affect KFD, and feeding that knowledge into project approaches and models. This workshop will be followed by two more: on knowledge integration (planned for September 2019) and experimentation (planned in late 2019) to complete the co-production process. Top ranked risk factors identified by stakeholders for Kyasanur Forest Disease included lack of education/awareness about KFD, under or late reporting of monkey deaths, deforestation and/or forest degradation, lack of awareness of preventative measures (tick repellants, vaccination), lack of awareness or understanding of alternative wildlife hosts, low vaccine coverage and poor diagnostics and surveillance. Key needs to improve management included those related to human resources i.e. the need for better trained manpower; more equipment; tick experts and taxonomists, improved surveillance including active surveillance; surveillance for disease, vectors and hosts, better diagnostic facilities and better inter-sectoral communication and coordination. Concerning the impacts of national and state level policies on KFD management, key policies that were identified as having a negative impact or as being poorly implemented were those concerning deforestation, grazing and encroachment in and around forest areas, with abrupt shifts in land use in these areas being identified as making communities more vulnerable to KFD. In the health sector, policy changes that were suggested to benefit management were making KFD a notifiable disease, learning from wide-scale vaccination and vector control campaigns for other diseases, improving the coordination between veterinarians conducting post-mortems and public health professionals involved treating human patients, improving the screening of livestock for pathogens and ecto-parasites before transportation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.monkeyfeverrisk.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-media/news/first-stakeholder-workshop-report-availabl... |
| Description | Project Knowledge Integration Workshop with cross-sectoral stakeholders in zoonotic disease management |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Our "Knowledge Integration" workshop brought together key state and district level disease managers and policy makers, from KFD-affected areas of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala, from the public health (22 participants), animal health (six participants) and other sectors (six from agriculture, forestry and social welfare sectors). This workshop built on the first framing workshop, by further integrating knowledge from key stakeholders at the district and state level into the project Decision Support tools and risk guidance. A prototype Decision Support Tool (DST) was presented to stakeholders to gain their insights into the potential management uses of the tool and improvements required. Stakeholders felt that the desk-based App presented would be suitable for officials involved in KFD management from block level up to National and State Levels. For users that may be entering data on case locations and history in remote locations, such as health workers and Primary Health Centre Medical officers, a Mobile Phone App was felt to be more suitable. Key management uses identified were to enable targeting of field management activities such as community engagement on preventative measures, tick control and monkey death reporting. The function of raising awareness and providing information on KFD symptoms, risks from ticks, tick prevention measures, post-mortem protocols was also felt to be very beneficial at the ground-level. Stakeholders further suggested that information from the DST could help with resource planning and with media engagement and mobilization of local elected representatives at Taluka and District levels and could feed into multi-level inter-sectoral meetings. The risk maps that predict where human cases of KFD are likely to occur (based on whether locations have similar landscape conditions to locations that had KFD in the past) was one of the most popular functional aspect of the DST amongst stakeholders. Participants to the workshop stressed that preparedness for KFD could be enhanced if updated risk and outbreak maps could be provided each year, in time to guide pre-season tick surveillance, vaccination campaigns and awareness raising amongst Primary Health Centres of KFD risk and diagnosis. The full report on the workshop and next steps will be uploaded to the project website by the end of March 2020. The desk-based Shiny App will be tailored to the workshop feedback and rolled out to end-users across sectors by Spring 2020 whilst translation funding is being sought for the Phone App version. Subsequent to the workshop, additional focus groups and meetings are being conducted with key actors in the Animal Health, Forestry and Wildlife Sectors. For example, the Project team from NIVEDI (Dr. Mudassar Chanda and Dr. Suresh) met Animal husbandry officials comprising of Director, Additional Director (Animal Health), Additional Director (Development) and Joint Director (Epidemiology) and demonstrated the Decision Support Tool (DST) for KFD management. The officials appreciated the tool and felt it will be useful to have such apps for important livestock diseases including zoonoses. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Research Training Placement on Earth Observation for 3 Indian researchers from ATREE, Bangalore |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | The three researchers from EO received one to one support and training in Earth Observation techniques for mapping land use, land use change (from Landsat TM data), as well as water-body and rice paddy dynamics (from Sentinel Radar data) in India. They received practical feedback on structuring and writing up analyses for international publication using their own work. Outcome: Improved understanding and skills in Earth Observation and abilities to disseminate research in scientific papers |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
| Description | Research Training Placement on desk-based policy review at CEH for Indian researcher from ATREE, Bangalore |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | A post-doctoral RA received training in conducting desk-based review of national and international policies (in this case linked to zoonotic diseases in India) and conducting informant interviews with stakeholders. One to one support and training on writing up the data generated into a co-authored conference presentation and manuscript. Outcome: Improved understanding and skills in conducting policy reviews and informant interviews and increased awareness of OneHealth inter-disciplinary approaches. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Seeing the forest and the trees: Macroeconomic drivers of forest use and the case of Adivasi (indigenous) people in India (Dr Prashanth, IPH) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited by Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium & the European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health for a plenary on OneHealth experience in India |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Stakeholder engagement event for Cop26 on climate change adaptation: Stand on "Inter-disciplinary One Health approaches to improve resilience to zoonotic diseases" Dr Beth Purse |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Stand was presented by IndiaZooRIsk team members on "Inter-disciplinary One Health approaches to improve resilience to zoonotic diseases", summarising how social and ecological factors can modulate zoonotic disease risk, the importance of mapping and understanding how key policies and actors impact on zoonotic disease systems and understanding adaptation and vulnerability of local communities, leading to outcomes that strengthen health systems such tailored risk guidance and decision support tools and risk models. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Talk at the Indian International Science Festival on the KFD Decision Support Tool by Dr Darshan Naryanaswamy, December 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Darshan presented the decision support tool and risk maps for KFD and explained how the tool was being operationalised to inform KFD management. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Training for Health Department District Entomologist in morphological identification of ticks |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The newly appointed District Entomologist working in Virus Diagnostic Laboratory, Shivamogga (part of the Department of Health and Family Welfare Services) was trained in morphological identification of ticks from 04-09-2019 to 13-09-2019 at ICAR-NIVEDI. The entomologist was trained to identify the genus of ticks and species of Haemaphysalis. The District Entomologist is in turn training other entomologists of Karnataka state which is strengthening the tick surveillance by the Health Department. This will be the first year that sampled ticks from the tick surveillance are identified to species before being assayed for Kyasanur Forest Disease. As the results accumulate, this will shed light on the role of different tick vectors in transmission in different parts of Karnataka. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Training visit of expert to build capacity in tick ecology and diagnostic methods |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | CEH experts in vector ecology and molecular diagnostics, Stefanie Schafer visited field sites in the Western Ghats forests in India for 2 x 4-6 weeks and worked with teams of research assistants from ATREE, IPH, NIVEDI and NITM, to build capacity in ecological sampling, laboratory workflows and molecular diagnostics for tick vectors of zoonotic diseases. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Twitter account (@MonkeyFever_) set up for the project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The project twitter account enables rapid dissemination of information, including background to the project, proposed research, updates on progress, outputs, and also links to news articles with details of disease outbreaks. Recent studies have shown that twitter is an effective and important tool for science communication (Finch, O'Hanlon &Dudley (2017) Tweeting birds: online mentions predict future citations in ornithology. R. Soc. open sci. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.171371) and this project twitter is a useful way of keeping the general public and scientific community up to date with developments in this project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019,2020 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/MonkeyFever_ |
| Description | Visit of project team to District Health Officer, Deputy Commissioner, hospitals, affected villages and virus diagnostic laboratory in Shimoga District |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Scientists from the project team travelled to Shimoga District to meet the District Health Officer, hospital staff and community health and laboratory workers that are involved in implementing control strategies for Kyasanur Forest Disease. We discussed and observed how the current strategies are tuned to the knowledge/beliefs on the socio-ecology of the KFD system as well as key constraints on the public health system within which the control strategies must be implemented. We had discussions with the District Deputy Commissioner about his priorities for research into the KFD system and sensitised a wide range of people in the public health system in this long-affected district to our research. Key participants were identified for the problem framing and knowledge integration parts of the co-production process we are following to develop new decision support tools for KFD. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |