UC Davis leads attack on global pandemics

UC Davis is spearheading an international effort to detect and control diseases that spread from animals to people.

Over the next five years, a global early warning system named PREDICT will be developed through a $75 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development as part of its Emerging Pandemic Threats Program.

Among the 1,461 pathogens recognized to cause diseases in humans, at least 60 percent are of animal origin. Examples of diseases that spread this way include AIDS, which moved from chimpanzees to people, and avian influenza from birds.

"To establish and maintain global pathogen surveillance, we will work directly with local governments and conservation organizations to build or expand programs in wildlife and human health. Together we want to stop the next HIV," said Jonna Mazet, director of the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center. "This collaborative approach is key to PREDICT’s success."

UC Davis' primary PREDICT partners are Wildlife Conservation Society, Wildlife Trust, Global Viral Forecasting Inc., and the Smithsonian Institution. The PREDICT teams will be active in global hotspots where wild animals have significant interactions with domestic animals and dense human populations. These conditions have become more prevalent as humans have spread deeper into wilderness areas and travel more extensively. Historically, global pandemics have erupted every 30 or 40 years.