Increased global trade and travel have led to a rise in the number of invasive alien species (IAS) worldwide. Despite the acknowledgement of the substantial role wild species translocations pose in the emergence and re-emergence of pathogens of public health relevance, IAS are mainly studied for their environmental impacts and their disease risk towards humans and animals is still largely neglected. IAS, acting as hosts, may alter the infection dynamics in their area of release by introducing new pathogens or amplifying the local ones. Hence, early identification of IAS of possible health concern, i.e. the ones that, if successfully established in the area, would represent the highest disease risk, would allow to take the adequate preventive measures against their introduction and/or to manage them as a priority if they have been already introduced. Existing risk assessment frameworks are unsuitable to address the multifaceted nature of disease risk posed by IAS. To this end, we have adapted existing qualitative risk assessment frameworks and developed a tool allowing systematic prioritisation of IAS based on the pathogens of public health relevance that may be spread to relevant targets (humans, livestock or wildlife) in a selected area of interest. The tool is framed around two main risk pathways aimed at characterising the risk of introduction and amplification of newly introduced and locally acquired pathogens respectively. For a given IAS, through a comprehensive set of qualitative questions aimed at characterising the epidemiological, environmental and biological factors increasing or decreasing the disease risk along the pathways, the tool generates the list of relevant pathogens at high, medium, low or negligible risk towards humans, livestock or wildlife. Thought to be used by a multi-disciplinary working group of experts, the tool allows for comparison of different IAS and therefore, systematic identification of IAS that should be prioritised.

Development of a qualitative expert-based tool to assess invasive alien species disease risk / E. Chinchio, M. Crotta, C. Romeo, J. Drewe, J. Guitian, N. Ferrari. ((Intervento presentato al convegno Society for Veterinary Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine Annual Educational Meeting 2020 tenutosi a Westport nel 2020.

Development of a qualitative expert-based tool to assess invasive alien species disease risk

E. Chinchio
Primo
;
C. Romeo;N. Ferrari
Ultimo
2020

Abstract

Increased global trade and travel have led to a rise in the number of invasive alien species (IAS) worldwide. Despite the acknowledgement of the substantial role wild species translocations pose in the emergence and re-emergence of pathogens of public health relevance, IAS are mainly studied for their environmental impacts and their disease risk towards humans and animals is still largely neglected. IAS, acting as hosts, may alter the infection dynamics in their area of release by introducing new pathogens or amplifying the local ones. Hence, early identification of IAS of possible health concern, i.e. the ones that, if successfully established in the area, would represent the highest disease risk, would allow to take the adequate preventive measures against their introduction and/or to manage them as a priority if they have been already introduced. Existing risk assessment frameworks are unsuitable to address the multifaceted nature of disease risk posed by IAS. To this end, we have adapted existing qualitative risk assessment frameworks and developed a tool allowing systematic prioritisation of IAS based on the pathogens of public health relevance that may be spread to relevant targets (humans, livestock or wildlife) in a selected area of interest. The tool is framed around two main risk pathways aimed at characterising the risk of introduction and amplification of newly introduced and locally acquired pathogens respectively. For a given IAS, through a comprehensive set of qualitative questions aimed at characterising the epidemiological, environmental and biological factors increasing or decreasing the disease risk along the pathways, the tool generates the list of relevant pathogens at high, medium, low or negligible risk towards humans, livestock or wildlife. Thought to be used by a multi-disciplinary working group of experts, the tool allows for comparison of different IAS and therefore, systematic identification of IAS that should be prioritised.
2020
Settore VET/06 - Parassitologia e Malattie Parassitarie degli Animali
Settore MED/17 - Malattie Infettive
Settore BIO/05 - Zoologia
Settore BIO/07 - Ecologia
Development of a qualitative expert-based tool to assess invasive alien species disease risk / E. Chinchio, M. Crotta, C. Romeo, J. Drewe, J. Guitian, N. Ferrari. ((Intervento presentato al convegno Society for Veterinary Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine Annual Educational Meeting 2020 tenutosi a Westport nel 2020.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/722297
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