Poster Presentation 64th International Conference of the Wildlife Disease Association 2015

PREDICT - Wildlife Disease Surveillance in Viet Nam (#155)

Long Nguyen 1 , Nguyen Tung , Pham Thanh Long , Ngo Thanh Long , Nguyen Thanh Phuong , Le Tin Vinh Quang , Nguyen Thi Lan , Nguyen Thi Hoa , Dao Le Anh , Damien Joly , Jonna Mazet , Tracey Goldstein , Daniel Rejmanek , Leanne Clark , Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga , Sarah Olson , Amanda E. Fine
  1. Wildlife Conservation Society, Hanoi, Viet Nam

The PREDICT1 project was designed to strengthen capacities in developing countries to detect, control, and prevent zoonotic viruses of pandemic potential.  In Viet Nam the first stage of the extensive study identified potential high-risk interfaces for zoonotic disease spillover from wildlife to humans. Many of the high-risk interfaces identified in Viet Nam were linked to the domestic and international trade of wildlife. Samples were collected at these high-risk interfaces from wild rodents, bats, carnivores and non-human primates. Through this collaborative effort with Vietnamese research, academic and government institutions, PREDICT collected nearly 7,000 samples from wildlife and completed over 16,300 assays in Vietnamese and international laboratories to identify known and novel viruses.  Viral Family/Genus conventional PCR assays were applied followed by cloning and sequencing for confirmation of results and virus identification.  In Viet Nam 24 novel viruses (2 Corona, 2 Herpes, 5 Paramyxo and 15 Rhabdoviruses) and 3 known viruses (1 Corona, 1 Paramyxo and 1 Influenza) were detected.  Further work will be focused on understanding the biological and behavioral factors influencing the spillover, amplification and spread of pathogens at these high-risk interfaces to mitigate the risk of pandemic disease emergence.