Strengthening a One Health approach for highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses; Advancing a biological trajectory for viral risk assessment

The primary causes of international outbreaks, public health emergencies of international concern (PHEICs) and pandemics are zoonotic in origin, and the next pandemic pathogen will likely circulate in animals before causing widespread human disease. The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5Nx) virus is causing a panzootic (a pandemic in animals) through waves of viral activity and unprecedented infections and die offs in wild birds, domestic poultry and both terrestrial and marine mammals. The range of species infected HPAI viruses is unprecedented, with recent transmission involving dairy cows and other animals including cats and mice, as well as humans. This unexpected change in viral ecology calls into question the narrow focus of widely used risk assessment tools that focus primarily on human health, and draws attention to the importance of integrating a One Health approach to include other species and novel routes of exposure as novel viruses emerge. To that end, we are proposing to develop and use new biological tools to rapidly determine whether HPAI viruses infects and damages cells from different animals as well as humans. We will then use these tools to screen a large range of viruses detected from poultry and wild birds and mammals in Canada using these novel as well as more conventional models. We will then build a framework for decision making that incorporates risk to both human and animal health based on genomic and biological features to inform surveillance and other key decision-making policies.