Construction of generic roadmaps for the strategic coordination of global research into infectious diseases of animals and zoonoses.

Johannes Charlier,Gary Entrican,Luke Dalton,Sadhana Sharma,Robert Taylor,Alex Morrow,Stefano Messori

doi:10.1111/tbed.13821

Abstract

The Strategic Alliance for Research into Infectious Diseases of Animals and Zoonoses (STAR-IDAZ) International Research Consortium (IRC) coordinates global animal health research to accelerate delivery of disease control tools and strategies. With this vision, STAR-IDAZ IRC has constructed four generic research roadmaps for the development of candidate vaccines, diagnostic tests, therapeutics and control strategies for animal diseases. The roadmaps for vaccines, diagnostic tests and therapeutics lead towards a desired target product profile (TPP). These interactive roadmaps describe the building blocks and for each the key research questions, dependencies, challenges and possible solution routes to identify the basic research needed for translation to the TPP. The control strategies roadmap encompasses the vaccine, diagnostic tests, and therapeutic roadmaps within a wider framework focusing on the inter-dependence of multiple tools and knowledge to control diseases for the benefit of animal and human health. The roadmaps are now being completed for specific diseases and complemented by state-of-the-art information on relevant projects and publications to ensure that the necessary research gaps are addressed for selected priority diseases.

Highlights

Global livestock systems are experiencing profound changes as a result of anthropogenic pressures including the growing human population, consumption patterns and environmental issues (Herrero & Thornton, 2013)
Gap analysis in animal disease control is regularly performed by various organizations or initiatives such as the DISCONTOOLS database where the availability of animal disease control tools and the associated gaps and research needs are mapped and updated for over 50 infectious animal diseases (O'Brien, Scudamore, Charlier, & Delavergne, 2017)
The generic roadmaps described here have evolved as a process of STAR-IDAZ activities

Summary

Introduction

Global livestock systems are experiencing profound changes as a result of anthropogenic pressures including the growing human population, consumption patterns and environmental issues (Herrero & Thornton, 2013). We describe the construction of four generic STAR-IDAZ IRC roadmaps for the development of candidate vaccines, diagnostic tests, therapeutics and disease control strategies. Sensitive and specific diagnostic tests underpin the generation of reliable epidemiological data and the development of targeted control approaches, they are a major driver for investment in the development of new vaccines and therapeutics.

Results

Conclusion