Host Pathogen Interactions - Animal

Team Coordinator
Jerry Malayer
222 McElroy Hall
405-744-8085

Team Administrator
Same as above

TOPIC 1: USING ANIMAL AND MICROBIAL GENOMICS TO SOLVE PROBLEMS IN ANIMAL HEALTH

Initiative: Application of genomics to develop improved diagnostics and vaccines.

Rationale: Genomics will enable the rational development of vaccines and better diagnostic targets.

Priorities within Initiative:

1. Ensuring adequate structural genomics and informatics resources in place for the pertinent pathogens.
2. Ensuring immunological and genomic toolbox and populations are available for testing new generation of diagnostics and vaccines.
3. Long-term containment facilities in place.

Initiative: Host genomics as it relates to animal health and well-being.

Rationale: Genomics will enable the identification of superior host genetics.

Priorities within Initiative:

1. Access to adequate structural genomics and informatics resources in place.
2. Access to long-term animal populations / phenotypes in place.
3. Access to adequate functional genomics resources are in place.

Initiative: Host / pathogen / production environment interactions.

Rationale: Enable better understanding of the interactions between the host, various pathogens and the production environment.

Priorities within Initiative:

1. Understanding mechanisms of pathogen-driven resistance in the host.
2. Mechanisms of innate and adaptive immune response.
3. Understanding mechanisms of changes in host range and tropism.
4. Understanding virulence mechanisms including host invasion.

TOPIC 2: SURVEILLANCE AND ON-FARM BIOSECURITY

Initiative: Early detection of emerging diseases and clarification of syndromes

Rationale: Need to recognize an unusual event for further investigation. Farmers and veterinary practitioners need to be aware of how they can participate in and benefit from surveillance.

Priorities within Initiative:

1. Evaluation and participation in support networks for diagnosis of novel, unusual or unknown diseases.
2. Develop Tools to facilitate Ongoing Monitoring and surveillance and systems to collect and analyze data, including serology and animal-side testing.
3. Explore approaches for syndromic surveillance on farm-level

Initiative: Validation and cost-benefit analysis of biological risk management options on different premises throughout food chain

Rationale: Efficacy and practicality of many existing and proposed biological risk mitigation options are unknown

Priorities within Initiative:

1. Perform quantitative risk analysis (effectiveness and cost) of biological risk mitigation measures
2. Establish methods for evaluation of biological risk mitigation procedures, utilizing demonstration farms

Initiative: Establish baseline of existing disease (baseline health status) with definitive diagnosis and syndromes to more easily identify emerging diseases

Rationale: Lacking baseline data; existing data may contain biases and flaws and conclusions drawn from these data sets may be erroneous.

Priorities within Initiative:

1. Identify the flaws and biases in existing databases
2. Define normal health and disease occurrence under a variety of management conditions using traditional and advanced technologies
3. Refine existing systems for the comprehensive collection and interpretation of surveillance data

Initiative: Utilization of animal and premises ID systems for disease surveillance (Technology merger: Diagnosis and animal/premises identification)

Rationale: Animal and premises ID systems are being implemented and are underutilized.

Priorities within Initiative:

1. Support proactive exercises to test our ability to identify and track movement of animals in the face of an outbreak
2. Develop in vivo biosensor technology combined with animal and premises ID systems

TOPIC 3: ALTERNATIVES TO ANTIBIOTICS AND OTHER TRADITIONAL PHARMACEUTICALS

Initiative: Vaccines/Immune Products

Rationale: Vaccine and immune products (modulators) offer the potential to augment or replace antibiotic use.

Priorities within Initiative:

1. adaptive immunity (e.g.: vaccines..)
2. innate immunity (e.g.: cytokines, antimicrobial peptides..)
3. biotherapeutics (e.g.: bacteriophage, antibodies..)
4. delivery technologies

Initiative: Management Intervention Strategies

Rationale: Some production systems place animals at risk for disease and are associated with excessive use of antimicrobials and other pharmaceuticals.

Priorities within Initiative:

1. Determine and quantify factors for disease risk (e.g.: epidemiology…)
2. Modulators of stress in production systems
3. Biosecurity and biocontainment models
4. Nutritional management (pre- and pro-biotics, organic acids, essential oils, competive exclusion, bacteriophage)

Initiative: Genetic Resistance To Disease

Rationale: An understanding of genetic resistance will improve animal health and may reduce potential for disease

Priorities within Initiative:

1. Identify and characterize risk alleles (database, frequency)
2. Innate immunity
3. Ensure access to health (genetic) databases

Initiative: Emerging Technologies

Rationale: Provide mechanism or means to respond to new break-throughs in technology

Priorities within Initiative:

1. antiviral molecules (interfering RNA, anti-sense)
2. novel delivery systems

TOPIC 4: DISEASE IMPACT OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Initiative: Ecology of Disease

Rationale: Essential to understanding diseases and methods for their control

Priorities within Initiative:

1. Identify mechanisms of disease transmission to enhance or improve predictive epidemiologic models.
2. research on risk mitigation of wildlife livestock interface
3. develop new and enhanced methods for vector control - esp. tick vector
4. develop new strategies for disease control based on epidemiologic models

Initiative: Methods to reduce pathogen loads by enhancing natural environmental capacity

Rationale: Decrease animal disease through the use of natural interventions.

Priorities within Initiative:

1. Identify beneficial organisms and identify methods to enhance their proliferation in the environment.
2. Investigate the use of probiotics to reduce the shedding of pathogens in the environment

TOPIC 5: DISEASES OF BEEF CATTLE

Initiative: Bovine Respiratory Disease (BVD, Pasteurella, Mannheimia, Histophilus, viral co-infection/emergence)

Rationale: BRD continues to be an economically significant disease complex. Better strategies are needed for prevention.

Priorities within Initiative:

1. Management-Disease interactions/Prevention Strategies
2. Rapid Diagnostics to aid in vivo diagnosis and treatment
3. Host-pathogen-environment interactions
4. Immunology/Vaccine Development

Initiative: Enteric Disease (O157, Salmonella, BVD, neonatal, specific disease-related objectives under priorities)

Rationale: A number of pathogens are economically important to the beef industry and have public health significance as well.

Priorities within Initiative:

1. Vaccines/Anti-infection strategies
2. Surveillance/Rapid Diagnostics to aid in treatment
3. Biosecurity and Biocontainment Plans
4. Genomics- genetically based resistance

Initiative: Emerging and Re-Emerging Diseases (FMD, tickborne, TB/Brucella, FAD, syndromes, surveillance, ticks/babesia)

Rationale: New and existing disease control and eradication programs are needed to address public health, food safety and production concerns. There is need to rapidly respond to unexpected disease threats.

Priorities within Initiative:

1. Innovative, rapid detection/diagnostic tests
2. Understanding factors that lead to emergence/reemergence, including zoonotic transmission

Initiative: Resistance to Therapeutics / Antimicrobials (antibiotics, anti-parasitics, other failures; treatment choices / consequences- disease evolution)

Rationale: Resistance to therapeutics is a growing concern in regard to production, food supply veterinary medicine and public health. There are critical knowledge gaps that hinder development of effective solutions.

Priorities within Initiative:

1. Rapid detection of resistance strains
2. Management practices to manage/minimize resistance
3. Ecology of emergence- ecosystem influences