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The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) will contract with Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine (TCSVM) to continue the Massachusetts Wildlife Disease Surveillance Project (WDSP). TCSVM will continue to: <OL> <LI> Foster inter-agency networks, and develop other tools to further the development of this program. <LI> Focus on emergent diseases, such as avian influenza, with the new potential for grave public health consequences, diseases expanding into new geographic areas, and re-emergent zoonotic diseases, such as rabies, with a history of public health concerns in the state. <LI> Take a leadership role in the development of collaborative efforts statewide for zoonotic disease monitoring and surveillance. <LI> Chair the Animal Surveillance and Education Committee. <LI> Identify and develop communication and collaboration with agencies and groups in Massachusetts involved in various aspects of monitoring, surveillance and response to wildlife diseases; this will include veterinarians, wildlife rehabilitators, animal control agents (both municipal and commercial), the academic community, state agencies, local boards of health, and others. </ol>Because long-standing and functional networks consisting of public health, state and federal agencies and community groups have been developed as part of the Oral Rabies Vaccination (ORV) program on Cape Cod, the WDSP will focus many of its efforts in the geographic region of Barnstable County. The WDSP will use the existing networks and programs to facilitate further development, implementation and testing of various protocols. By including the broader goals of wildlife disease surveillance in the ongoing work of the ORV, the WDSP will benefit from the previously established efforts of public education and community involvement. These efforts will facilitate operational expansion of these surveillance and emergency response procedures and protocols to other areas of the state and to other zoonotic wildlife diseases of concern to human health. In addition, continued ties will be made between this project and the work conducted by USDA-WS in that region to take advantage of their wildlife field sampling as a resource for monitoring baseline levels of other zoonotic diseases such as avian influenza, tularemia and ehrlichia. The sampling program utilizing the Wildlife Clinic at TCSVM and other sample sources will be continued. The primary goal of these sampling efforts is to gather background data on target syndromes and diseases. It is anticipated that during this year, the majority of samples obtained and submitted to the MDPH laboratory will be clinical samples (including serum, blood, and feces) to be examined for the specifically targeted infectious agents. A limited number of complete necropsies in response to outbreaks of concern in wild species will be performed at TCSVM at the request of MDPH.
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) will contract with Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine (TCSVM) to continue the Massachusetts Wildlife Disease Surveillance Project (WDSP). This partnership provides the framework by which the Commonwealth of Massachusetts works to protect the public health by monitoring for early detection of and response to potential zoonotic disease outbreaks within the wild animal populations in the state. Emergent diseases, such as avian influenza, with the new potential for grave public health consequences, diseases expanding into new geographic areas, and re-emergent zoonotic diseases, such as rabies, with a history of public health concerns in the state, will continue to be the focus of this project. <P>
APPROACH: <P>Specific Services<OL> <LI> Development of collaborations and networks. A) Chair the Animal Surveillance and Education Committee: a. Continue to hold regular meetings to discuss topics relevant to zoonotic disease detection and prevention. b. Continue to develop more contacts with local, state and regional collaborators. B) Continue the participation in Mass Rabies Advisory Group and Cape Cod Rabies Task Force to contribute to disease surveillance and monitoring. <LI> Response to wildlife outbreaks of public health concern: Perform a limited number of complete necropsies and diagnostics on wildlife specimens from die-offs that have the potential for public health impacts. <LI> Sample collection and processing: a. Obtain clinical samples from wildlife presented to TCSVM Wildlife Clinic. b. Perform necropsies, and obtain post-mortem samples on WLC clinical cases and other investigations. c. Continue to develop sample archiving capability and protocols. d. Continue to develop database systems and ability to perform GIS mapping of results. e. Further develop and refine SOPs for the project.
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PROGRESS: 2008/01 TO 2008/06 <BR>
OUTPUTS: The Wildlife Disease Surveillance Project has continued to develop communication pathways and collaborative efforts with the many state, regional and federal agencies, academic and other private organizations with interests in the issues of emerging infectious zoonotic diseases and their potential effects on human and animal health in Massachusetts. We have continued to coordinate and host monthly statewide Animal Surveillance and Education Committee (ASE) meetings at the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine (TCSVM). This meeting's format was redeveloped last year to provide both a venue for updates from committee participants on projects of interest to the group, as well as a working discussion session. In addition to project or issue updates, we have reports regarding zoonotic disease cases in the state and share information on upcoming conferences or meetings that might be of interest to the members of the group. Half of each meeting is scheduled to be a working forum where we discuss specific topics of interest to produce mutually beneficial solutions. We have continued to expanded the membership of the committee with participants from many different agencies and interest groups lending their perspective and expertise. This committee is now seen as effective in facilitating collaborative efforts and providing a venue for networking and forming informal partnerships with others in the state and sharing information and ideas of mutual benefit. We have become an example that is unique in the New England region for effective interagency communication and cooperation. This year we continue to make an effort to gather opportunistic surveillance samples when possible and as an example are using the Oral Rabies Vaccination project (ORV) in Barnstable County on Cape Cod as an opportunity to expand upon an ongoing, long-standing project working with a zoonotic disease; one with new emerging public health threats in this part of the state. We are active members of the Cape Cod Rabies Task Force and participate regularly in these meetings. These have been useful in coordinating the expansion of our surveillance work on the Cape this year and networking with the existing Cape Cod agencies. We also participate in the MDPH Massachusetts Rabies Advisory Committee meetings. <BR>PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. <BR>TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. <BR>PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
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IMPACT: 2008/01 TO 2008/06<BR>
Creating and expanding working collaborations within Massachusetts has strengthened our ability to respond effectively to emerging zoonotic disease threats within the state and regionally. Our Avian Influenza FAQ sheet is aiding the ability of each agency to respond with a standard answer and help maintain an overall consistency to the information being disseminated throughout the state. It also allows each agency to refer more specific questions onward to the appropriate agency for those answers that are specific to each individual agency's area of expertise. With TCSVM acting as a resource for multi-agency statewide efforts to monitor infectious zoonotic disease in wildlife we have increased the protection of the public health.