Health Monitoring of Animals Subject to Illegal Trafficking from the One Health Perspective
The realities of illegal wildlife trade, the changes in ecosystem dynamics, and the closeness of the population to wild areas, are events that could potentially trigger the appearance of diseases. These elements joined with the fact that there is significant lack of knowledge regarding the health of wildlife in northern Guatemala, highlight the need to train personnel, equip an entity dedicated to the health of wild animals and create a methodology for obtaining viable samples for correct long-term storage, safeguarding irreplaceable biological information, and facilitating present and future research. Improving the chances of early detection of pathogens and the future conservation of the integral health of the wild fauna of the Maya Biosphere Reserve.
Main objective: Strengthen the regional knowledge on One Health issues, through the generation of a baseline of information on pathogens in wild animals, produce a bank of properly managed and preserved samples, and training the staff of institutions related to this work and topic.
- Strengthen the capacity of ARCAS to handle and store biological samples.
- Train people from different institutions based in the mayan jungle in issues regarding one health and recognition of events of importance in animal health, specimen collection and biosecurity.
- Obtain, process, and store biological samples.
Participants
Kim Gruetzmacher
Contacts
Felix Drexler
Position: https://virologie-ccm.charite.de/en/research/ag_drexler/