A Participatory System for Preventing Pandemics of Animal Origins: Pilot Study of the Participatory One Health Disease Detection (PODD) System.

BACKGROUND: Aiming for early disease detection and prompt outbreak control, digital technology with a participatory One Health approach was used to create a novel disease surveillance system called Participatory One Health Disease Detection (PODD). PODD is a community-owned surveillance system that collects data from volunteer reporters; identifies disease outbreak automatically; and notifies the local governments (LGs), surrounding villages, and relevant authorities. This system provides a direct and immediate benefit to the communities by empowering them to protect themselves. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the PODD system for the rapid detection and control of disease outbreaks. METHODS: The system was piloted in 74 LGs in Chiang Mai, Thailand, with the participation of 296 volunteer reporters. The volunteers and LGs were key participants in the piloting of the PODD system. Volunteers monitored animal and human diseases, as well as environmental problems, in their communities and reported these events via the PODD mobile phone app. LGs were responsible for outbreak control and provided support to the volunteers. Outcome mapping was used to evaluate the performance of the LGs and volunteers. RESULTS: LGs were categorized into one of the 3 groups based on performance: A (good), B (fair), and C (poor), with the majority (46%,34/74) categorized into group B. Volunteers were similarly categorized into 4 performance groups (A-D), again with group A showing the best performance, with the majority categorized into groups B and C. After 16 months of implementation, 1029 abnormal events had been reported and confirmed to be true reports. The majority of abnormal reports were sick or dead animals (404/1029, 39.26%), followed by zoonoses and other human diseases (129/1029, 12.54%). Many potentially devastating animal disease outbreaks were detected and successfully controlled, including 26 chicken high mortality outbreaks, 4 cattle disease outbreaks, 3 pig disease outbreaks, and 3 fish disease outbreaks. In all cases, the communities and animal authorities cooperated to apply community contingency plans to control these outbreaks, and community volunteers continued to monitor the abnormal events for 3 weeks after each outbreak was controlled. CONCLUSIONS: By design, PODD initially targeted only animal diseases that potentially could emerge into human pandemics (eg, avian influenza) and then, in response to community needs, expanded to cover human health and environmental health issues.

Seroprevalence of Coxiella burnetii Antibodies Among Ruminants and Occupationally Exposed People in Thailand, 2012-2013.

AbstractLittle is known about the burden of Q fever in Thailand. We conducted a serological study to describe the prevalence of anti-Coxiella burnetii antibodies among ruminants and occupationally exposed persons in response to the report of the first two Q fever endocarditis patients in Thailand in 2012. We randomly selected ruminant sera from brucellosis surveillance and examined sera of 661 occupationally exposed subjects from two provinces of Thailand: Chiangmai and Nakornratchasima. Animal and human sera were tested using commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Environmental samples, vaginal swab, and milk from cows in Chiangmai farms with detectable anti-C. burnetii serum antibodies were tested using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Among the 1,632 animal sera tested, 64 (3.9%) were seropositive. The prevalence was highest in dairy cattle (4.6%, 45/988), followed by goats (3.5%, 18/516) and sheep (2.1%, 1/48). The prevalence of anti-C. burnetii antibodies in each species varied significantly by province: the prevalence in cattle was higher in Chiangmai (5.5% versus 0%), however, the prevalence in sheep and goats was higher in Nakornratchasima (5.9% versus 1.0%). Four out of 60 milk samples were positive by PCR (6.7%). No environmental samples were positive. Among 661 human samples, 83 (12.6%) were ELISA positive. Seroprevalence was statistically higher in Chiangmai compare with Nakornratchasima (42.8% versus 3.0%). Coxiella burnetii infection exists in Thailand, but the prevalence varies by geographic distribution and animal reservoirs. Further studies focusing on the burden and risk factors of C. burnetii infection among high-risk groups should be conducted.

Evaluation of an Indirect-ELISA Test for Trypanosoma evansi Infection (Surra) in Buffaloes and Its Application to a Serological Survey in Thailand.

Surra, caused by Trypanosoma evansi, is a neglected disease due to frequent subclinical evolution, especially in bovines in Asia. However, acute and chronic signs are regularly observed, with significant sanitary and economic impacts. In this study, we evaluated and applied an indirect-ELISA test for the detection of anti-T. evansi immunoglobulin G in buffaloes using antibovine conjugate. Based on buffalo reference sera from the Philippines, a two-graph receiver operating characteristics analysis (TG-ROC) was conducted to define an optimal cut-off value; sensitivity and specificity were estimated at 92.5% and 94.2%, respectively. A cross-sectional serological survey was carried out in the major buffalo breeding areas of Thailand; 892 buffaloes from 8 provinces were sampled in North, Northeastern, and Southern Thailand. Seropositive buffaloes were found in all 8 provinces, on 20.3% of farms for an overall prevalence of 12.2% (95% CI 10.2-14.5%). Nearly one-third of the sampled population was exposed to infection. Broader sampling would be necessary but is not possible in the southern half-wild breeding systems. According to our results, buffaloes may constitute a large and robust reservoir for T. evansi, which is a permanent threat to other livestock such as cattle and horses as well as wild animals such as elephants in Southest Asia.

Diagnosis of a Trypanosoma lewisi-like (Herpetosoma) infection in a sick infant from Thailand.

Trypanosomes were observed in a peripheral blood smear from a 45-day-old Thai infant displaying fever, anaemia, cough and anorexia. Human trypanosomiasis is not endemic to Thailand, so parasite identification was undertaken to determine likely sources of the infection. Several morphological parameters of the trypanosomes were similar to those of Trypanosoma evansi and statistically different from those of Trypanosoma lewisi-like parasites from a naturally infected indigenous rat. However, duplicate PCR assays with primers flanking trypanosome rRNA internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) resulted in amplicons of approximately 623 bp that corresponded to the expected size for T. lewisi-like parasites. The ITS1 sequence from the infant's blood was 98 and 49 % identical to T. lewisi and T. evansi sequences, respectively. Based on molecular results, it was concluded that the infant was infected with a T. lewisi-like (Herpetosoma) species.