The panzootic potential of SARS-CoV-2.

Each year, SARS-CoV-2 is infecting an increasingly unprecedented number of species. In the present article, we combine mammalian phylogeny with the genetic characteristics of isolates found in mammals to elaborate on the host-range potential of SARS-CoV-2. Infections in nonhuman mammals mirror those of contemporary viral strains circulating in humans, although, in certain species, extensive viral circulation has led to unique genetic signatures. As in other recent studies, we found that the conservation of the ACE2 receptor cannot be considered the sole major determinant of susceptibility. However, we are able to identify major clades and families as candidates for increased surveillance. On the basis of our findings, we argue that the use of the term panzootic could be a more appropriate term than pandemic to describe the ongoing scenario. This term better captures the magnitude of the SARS-CoV-2 host range and would hopefully inspire inclusive policy actions, including systematic screenings, that could better support the management of this worldwide event.

Circular Health: exploiting the SDG roadmap to fight AMR.

Circular Health is a novel approach to address complex health issues that is based on the expansion of the One Health Paradigm. Circular health recognizes the need for a multidisciplinary convergence effort to complement the biomedical dimension of health. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the greatest global concerns for public health that is likely on the rise, given the extensive use of antibiotics during the early Covid-19 years. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, an expert group chaired by Jim O'Neill published "The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance", which contains a final report and recommendations on how to tackle AMR. The report, for the first time, considers AMR from a multi-perspective viewpoint highlighting how it cannot be successfully addressed unless there is a converging approach encompassing many dimensions of the problem. In this perspective, we propose to include the recommendations from that seminal report and other more recent reviews which include the lessons learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic, into the operational framework of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). AMR represents a perfect case study to explore how the SDG roadmap has the potential of becoming the driving force and implementation tool to address complex health issues by pursuing the optimization of resources and actions via a convergent and multi-stakeholder approach. The implementation of health-related policies through the whole spectrum of the SDGs could be both a novel and a well-established framework to inform multi-dimensional policies for more sustainable health in the future.

Green Turtle Fibropapillomatosis: Tumor Morphology and Growth Rate in a Rehabilitation Setting.

Fibropapillomatosis (FP) is a neoplastic disease most often found in green turtles (Chelonia mydas). Afflicted turtles are burdened with potentially debilitating tumors concentrated externally on the soft tissues, plastron, and eyes and internally on the lungs, kidneys, and the heart. Clinical signs occur at various levels, ranging from mild disease to severe debilitation. Tumors can both progress and regress in affected turtles, with outcomes ranging from death due to the disease to complete regression. Since its official description in the scientific literature in 1938, tumor growth rates have been rarely documented. In addition, FP tumors come in two very different morphologies; yet, to our knowledge, there have been no quantified differences in growth rates between tumor types. FP tumors are often rugose in texture, with a polypoid to papillomatous morphology, and may or may not be pedunculated. In other cases, tumors are smooth, with a skin-like surface texture and little to no papillose structures. In our study, we assessed growth-rate differences between rugose and smooth tumor morphologies in a rehabilitation setting. We measured average biweekly tumor growth over time in green turtles undergoing rehabilitation at the University of Florida Whitney Laboratory Sea Turtle Hospital in St. Augustine, Florida, and compared growth between rugose and smooth tumors. Our results demonstrate that both rugose and smooth tumors follow a similar active growth progression pattern, but rugose tumors grew at significantly faster rates (p = 0.013) than smooth ones. We also documented regression across several examined tumors, ranging from -0.19% up to -10.8% average biweekly negative growth. Our study offers a first-ever assessment of differential growth between tumor morphologies and an additional diagnostic feature that may lead to a more comprehensive understanding and treatment of the disease. We support the importance of tumor morphological categorization (rugose versus smooth) being documented in future FP hospital- and field-based health assessments.

A Coupled Human and Natural Systems Framework to Characterize Emerging Infectious Diseases-The Case of Fibropapillomatosis in Marine Turtles.

Emerging infectious diseases of wildlife have markedly increased in the last few decades. Unsustainable, continuous, and rapid alterations within and between coupled human and natural systems have significantly disrupted wildlife disease dynamics. Direct and indirect anthropogenic effects, such as climate change, pollution, encroachment, urbanization, travel, and trade, can promote outbreaks of infectious diseases in wildlife. We constructed a coupled human and natural systems framework identifying three main wildlife disease risk factors behind these anthropogenic effects: (i) immune suppression, (ii) viral spillover, and (iii) disease propagation. Through complex and convoluted dynamics, each of the anthropogenic effects and activities listed in our framework can lead, to some extent, to one or more of the identified risk factors accelerating disease outbreaks in wildlife. In this review, we present a novel framework to study anthropogenic effects within coupled human and natural systems that facilitate the emergence of infectious disease involving wildlife. We demonstrate the utility of the framework by applying it to Fibropapillomatosis disease of marine turtles. We aim to articulate the intricate and complex nature of anthropogenically exacerbated wildlife infectious diseases as multifactorial. This paper supports the adoption of a One Health approach and invites the integration of multiple disciplines for the achievement of effective and long-lasting conservation and the mitigation of wildlife emerging diseases.

Occurrence of Fibropapillomatosis in Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas) in Relation to Environmental Changes in Coastal Ecosystems in Texas and Florida: A Retrospective Study.

Fibropapillomatosis is a neoplastic disease of marine turtles, with green turtles (Chelonia mydas) being the most affected species. Fibropapillomatosis causes debilitating tumor growths on soft tissues and internal organs, often with lethal consequences. Disease incidence has been increasing in the last few decades and the reason is still uncertain. The potential viral infectious agent of Fibropapillomatosis, chelonid herpesvirus 5, has been co-evolving with its sea turtle host for millions of years and no major mutation linked with increased disease occurrence has been detected. Hence, frequent outbreaks in recent decades are likely attributable to external drivers such as large-scale anthropogenic changes in the green turtle coastal marine ecosystem. This study found that variations in sea surface temperature, salinity, and nutrient effluent discharge from nearby rivers were correlated with an increased incidence of the disease, substantiating that these may be among the significant environmental drivers impacting Fibropapillomatosis prevalence. This study offers data and insight on the need to establish a baseline of environmental factors which may drive Fibropapillomatosis and its clinical exacerbation. We highlight the multifactorial nature of this disease and support the inclusion of interdisciplinary work in future Fibropapillomatosis research efforts.

Could Mustelids spur COVID-19 into a panzootic?

The ongoing pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has spilled over into humans from an animal reservoir. Notably, the virus is now spilling back into a variety of animal species. It appears striking that American (Neovison vison) and European (Mustela vison) minks are the first intensively farmed animal to experience outbreaks. Neither of these have occurred in Asia or Africa but rather in Europe - namely Spain, Denmark, Netherlands and in the US, at a mink farm in Utah. Current evidence indicates that the virus was transmitted to the animals through infected human workers on the farm.At the time of writing, SARS-CoV-2 infection has not been documented in any other intensively farmed species, suggesting that mustelids may exhibit a higher susceptibility to the virus. Studies have shown that domestic ferrets have an extremely low resistance to COVID-19 infection (Shi et al. 2020). Mustelids comprise approximately 60 different species (Kollas et al. 2015) and are widely distributed across a number of habitats, both aquatic (marine and freshwater), and terrestrial (prairies, steppes, tundra, forests). Several wild mustelids have become acclimated to urban areas - such as raccoons, otters and badgers, and some are raised in households as pets - such as ferrets. The latter are perhaps at greater risk of infection than their cousins inhabiting the wild, but it is the former that we should be most worried about. If infection by SARS-CoV-2 spills into wild mustelids, these have the potential to become a permanent reservoir of infection for other animal species. Such a scenario has been seen before with rabies in raccoons and skunks (Rupprecht et al. 1995) and with bovine tuberculosis in badgers (Gallagher and Clifton-Hadley 2000).We believe that it is important to prioritize studies in mustelids on their putative role as reservoirs and amplifiers of SARS-CoV-2 infection in animals and subsequently humans. The development of appropriate surveillance and intervention strategies will determine if mustelids are one of the key links in the chain to the initiation of an unprecedented epochal event: a panzootic.