Raising the political profile of the neglected zoonotic diseases: three complementary European commission-funded projects to streamline research, build capacity and advocate for control.

Anna L Okello,Iconz ,Dirk Berkvens,Christopher Saarnak,Maria Vang Johansen,Alexandra Shaw,Sarah Gabriël,Advanz ,Susan C Welburn,Oh-Nextgen ,Kevin Bardosh,Iona Beange,Samson Mukaratirwa,Ignacio Moriyón

doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0003505

Abstract

Raising the political profile of the neglected zoonotic diseases: three complementary European commission-funded projects to streamline research, build capacity and advocate for control.

Highlights

The World Health Organisation identifies eight Neglected Zoonotic Diseases (NZDs) as major causes of ill health to both humans and domestic animals in many countries across the world [1,2,3]
Policy Significance of the Three Research Projects. Through supporting these three ambitious NZD programmes within its FP7 Programme, the European Commission is leading the fight against this group of important but neglected diseases, simultaneously promoting livestock productivity, human health, and overall development in high-risk, low-resource societies across Africa
The high quality epidemiological, socioeconomic, and sociocultural data generated by Integrated Control of Neglected Zoonoses (ICONZ) will result in a greater understanding of NZD burden, transmission, and control, essential for garnering political support for future research and control programmes amongst the international community

Summary

Introduction

The World Health Organisation identifies eight Neglected Zoonotic Diseases (NZDs) as major causes of ill health to both humans and domestic animals in many countries across the world [1,2,3]. The European Commission, through their Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), has funded three complementary projects to address these issues on a large scale in Africa; i) Integrated Control of Neglected Zoonoses in Africa (ICONZ), ii) training of the One Health Scientific Generation in the Sahel and Maghreb (OHNEXTGEN), and iii) Advocacy for Neglected Zoonotic Diseases (ADVANZ). The ICONZ project has been designed to generate an evidence base for the promotion of integrated control packages for the eight NZDs in seven African International Partner Cooperation Countries (ICPCs): Morocco, Mali, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zambia. A key focus throughout this fourth meeting was how to translate the available research evidence into

Conclusion

Findings

The control of neglected Zoonotic Diseases