, /PRNewswire/ -- Even as the role of wildlife in disease outbreaks is increasingly recognized, our ability to detect and respond to emerging wildlife threats remains primitive at best. One major obstacle? The chronic underfunding of the wildlife data surveillance sector compared to its human and agricultural counterparts. PAX , Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's (PNNL) and College of Veterinary Medicine convened, for the first time, a group of public, private, academic, and philanthropic stakeholders to negotiate harmonizing wildlife data and to offer sophisticated analytic tools for wildlife experts.
This marks a concrete step towards predictive and proactive biosurveillance, safeguarding both wildlife and human health. Achieving this would be good for wildlife, good for public health, and good for national security. In a world where the next pandemic could be lurking just around the corner, the importance of early detection and proactive surveillance cannot be overstated.
However, "it has been a quarter of a century since the lessons of West Nile Virus, and we still have not fully integrated biosurveillance across species. continues to grapple with vulnerabilities in its ability to share crucial wildlife data," emphasized Dr. , College of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Pathologist.
The advances made in data sharing, protection, privacy, and predictive capabilities offered by PNNL's One Health – OH-TREADS platform mark a step toward improving wildlife programs, prov.
