Animal well-being is an important component in the One-Health approach not only because of zoonosis and emerging infectious diseases, but because food security is a priority in any strategy to face climate change. We are interested in linking data of virus surveillance and antibiotic resistance among vertebrates with registries from ecosystem conservancy, vector borne diseases control, and animal traffic. We have already submitted a grant proposal to the Colombian Ministry of Sciences aimed to identify zoonotic and highly pathogenic viruses in animals seized by DAGMA-CVC, the environmental authority in the city. I am reaching out to this call because we are looking for partners interested in evaluating infectious agents that cause immune suppression to the animals, in a One-Health context.

I have worked with emerging viruses across the Americas but right now I am appointed as tenured professor in the College of Health at Universidad del Valle (Cali, Colombia). We have the human resources and infrastructure of Laboratorio de Diagnóstico de Agentes de Biológicos (LDAB), which is an approved clinical laboratory with ISO9001:2015 certification to perform diagnostics of infectious diseases. LDAB has been a collaborator for Colombian Instituto Nacional de Salud (INS) during the H1N1pdm09 and COVID-19 pandemics and is headquarters of the Neuroviruses Emerging in the Americas Study (NEAS) network, currently financed by NIH, in Colombia. One of NEAS projects is already covering detection of Campylobacter jejuni and detection+sequencing of rabies; our recently submitted proposal would provide resources for detecting+sequencing influenza, parvovirus, distemper and West Nile virus. Therefore the primary idea of partnering with would be to join forces to monitor gyroviruses, immunodeficiency virus (bovine, feline, simian), foot and mouth disease, etc., in the sized population plus others animal eager to be helped, including the local zoo, small farmers and the CVC (they want strategies to monitor the impact of ecosystem services when issuing permissions for bleeding wild fauna).