A collaborative, One Health approach to zoonotic virus detection and risk assessment at the wildlife-human nexus

Numerous high consequence and emerging viruses of public health importance are zoonotic in origin, resulting from spillover from animals to other species, including humans. The complex interactions between the virus, individual hosts and populations warrant a One Health approach, whereby a multi-disciplinary lens is applied to address complex challenges relating to viruses with pandemic potential. Our team has been screening a range of wildlife species for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 and have identified several deer in Ontario and Quebec with evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Ongoing viral activity in deer may represent a new viral reservoir, and we have shown that deer in Ontario have a highly divergent, or mutated SARS-CoV-2 virus and that deer-to-deer and deer-to-human transmission have occurred. Divergent viruses, or variants have the potential to undermine medical countermeasures such as vaccination and to cause enhanced disease in humans and wildlife. Our objectives as an inter-disciplinary group of collaborators examining virus inter-species spillover are to establish a framework and risk assessment approach for the detection and characterization of zoonotic viruses in wildlife, and to ensure knowledge mobilization and translation through a new initiative, the Wildlife Emerging Pathogen Initiative, or Wild-EPI. To do this, we propose to address key scientific questions around zoonotic virus ecology, epidemiology and biology in wildlife. We will use a One Health approach to identify of SARS-CoV-2 and avian influenza virus in wildlife, determine viral circulation among animals and spill back into humans, and the risk of transmission and disease. The proposed work will provide decision and policy-makers with critical information for timely decision-making for emerging pathogens.