Leveraging natural history biorepositories as a global, decentralized, pathogen surveillance network.

Jocelyn P Colella ,Manuela Londoño-Gaviria ,Enrique P Lessa ,Stephen E Greiman ,Fernando Torres-Pérez ,Bruce Struminger ,Eric P Hoberg ,Camila C Ribas ,Elizabeth Losos ,Schuyler Liphardt ,Jonathan L Dunnum ,Marcelo Weksler ,Isabel D Constable ,Carlos Carrión Bonilla ,Cody W Thompson ,Nicté Ordóñez Garza ,Santiago F Burneo ,María Laura Martín ,M Alejandra Camacho ,Holly L Lutz ,Guillermo D’elı́a ,A Townsend Peterson ,John M Bates ,Joseph A Cook

doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1009583

Abstract

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic reveals a major gap in global biosecurity infrastructure: a lack of publicly available biological samples representative across space, time, and taxonomic diversity. The shortfall, in this case for vertebrates, prevents accurate and rapid identification and monitoring of emerging pathogens and their reservoir host(s) and precludes extended investigation of ecological, evolutionary, and environmental associations that lead to human infection or spillover. Natural history museum biorepositories form the backbone of a critically needed, decentralized, global network for zoonotic pathogen surveillance, yet this infrastructure remains marginally developed, underutilized, underfunded, and disconnected from public health initiatives. Proactive detection and mitigation for emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) requires expanded biodiversity infrastructure and training (particularly in biodiverse and lower income countries) and new communication pipelines that connect biorepositories and biomedical communities. To this end, we highlight a novel adaptation of Project ECHO’s virtual community of practice model: Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA). MEPA is a virtual network aimed at fostering communication, coordination, and collaborative problem-solving among pathogen researchers, public health officials, and biorepositories in the Americas. MEPA now acts as a model of effective international, interdisciplinary collaboration that can and should be replicated in other biodiversity hotspots. We encourage deposition of wildlife specimens and associated data with public biorepositories, regardless of original collection purpose, and urge biorepositories to embrace new specimen sources, types, and uses to maximize strategic growth and utility for EID research. Taxonomically, geographically, and temporally deep biorepository archives serve as the foundation of a proactive and increasingly predictive approach to zoonotic spillover, risk assessment, and threat mitigation.

Highlights

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has revealed critical weaknesses in international biosecurity and pandemic preparedness [1,2,3,4,5]: There are no global wildlife surveillance systems contributing to biorepositories to enable monitoring of emerging zoonotic diseases across space and time and, in consequence, international biorepository capacities are insufficient to permit researchers to identify pathogens and hosts, rapidly and reliably
The need for in-country biorepository infrastructure development and international communication channels is not limited to the Americas; the Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA) ECHO network is a pilot project, modeling effective interdisciplinary communication and collaboration across international borders that can and should be replicated and expanded to include other corners of the globe such as biodiversity hotspots in Africa and East and Southeast Asia
Regional networks would periodically connect with related biodiversity-based ECHO networks at a global level for meta-regional meetings coordinated by MEPA

Summary

Introduction

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has revealed critical weaknesses in international biosecurity and pandemic preparedness [1,2,3,4,5]: There are no global wildlife surveillance systems contributing to biorepositories to enable monitoring of emerging zoonotic diseases across space and time and, in consequence, international biorepository capacities are insufficient to permit researchers to identify pathogens and hosts, rapidly and reliably. Development of a global pathogen surveillance and biorepository network would facilitate proactive pandemic preparedness for the first time by enabling early detection, regular monitoring, and the development of an evolutionary framework for spillover prediction [6]. The good news is that the beginnings of an international, decentralized biorepository network already exist in the form of the “Global Museum,” the geographically dispersed, international community of natural history museums that is increasingly digitally connected [12,13]. With modest investment and modifications in infrastructure and communication systems, these dispersed nodes could be expanded and connected to form a powerful international system for emerging pathogen surveillance and monitoring [9]

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