Tackling Threats to Global Health Security

Adapted from an article by the Wildlife Conservation Society

Dr. Pranav Pandit, a veterinary epidemiologist with the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, helped launch a new Pandemic Prevention Leadership Initiative earlier this year. The program—a collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and EpiEcos—was funded by the US Department of State’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation.

The initiative, spread over 15 months and involving 10 countries, launched its first in-person workshop this year with the goal of building capacity and fostering collaborative approaches across Southeast Asia to tackle threats to global health security.

The Kick-Off Leadership Workshop of the Pandemic Prevention Leadership Initiative (PPLI) Fellowship program took place in Bangkok, Thailand to introduce an immersive learning experience focused on key topics relevant to One Health and the prevention and mitigation of high consequence pathogen spillover in live animal markets.  The six-day workshop focusing on providing scenario-driven and hands-on learning, gathered for the first time the 19 Fellows from the ASEAN countries, PPLI teams including the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), WCS Laos, WCS Vietnam, WCS Indonesia, EpiEcos, and the University of California – Davis.

The Pandemic Prevention Leadership Initiative (PPLI) is designed to strengthen collaborative approaches in Southeast Asia to address threats to global health security and biodiversity conservation posed by the unregulated trade in wildlife species. The PPLI delivers specialized in-person and remote training to Fellows to strengthen working knowledge and skills in the following key areas:

• Live animal trade chains – source to markets/consumers
• Field Biorisk Management: Biosafety and Biosecurity
• Bio-surveillance
• Risk Assessment, Risk Mitigation, and Risk Modelings
• Outbreak Detection and Response

During the workshop, fellows explored the fundamentals of risk assessment, management, modeling, and communication; surveillance; and outbreak response in the context of wildlife trade and live animal markets in Southeast Asia. WCS Lao PDR Program presented the Laos Wildlife Health Surveillance’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) aimed at establishing a functional surveillance network in response to disease events in wildlife through a One Health approach. 

As part of the workshop’s program, participants made field trips to Klong Toey Wet Market, Khao Yai National Park, and Chatuchak Market (Live Animal/Wildlife Species) to enhance the experience-based learning.

“I think it is very important for WCS as a global wildlife conservation organization to engage with future leaders in regions of the world where we are working towards wildlife conservation goals and focused on implementing a One Health approach. We’ve had the opportunity through this Initiative to meet and network with people from multiple fields related to One Health coming from countries across Southeast Asia. t’s the kind of network that we would not be able to be a part of or be a part of developing without a fellowship program like this one.”, said Amanda Fine, Director of One Health at WCS .

The PPLI promotes capacity strengthening in early to mid-career professionals by incorporating the Pandemic Prevention Fellows Program, which utilizes a cohort approach and case-based training to directly support the development of a multidisciplinary network of leaders across the Southeast Asia region to address the ever-evolving and expanding global health and security threats related to zoonotic spillover of high-consequence pathogens and associated practices impacting wildlife populations.

Pandit served as the PI on the grant and led the risk assessment and modeling sessions during the workshop. At the time that Pandit submitted the grant application, he was with the One Health Institute. He was hired by the Department of Population Health and Reproduction as an assistant professor in April.