PREDICT is a project of USAID’s Emerging Pandemic Threats Program and is led by the UC Davis One Health Institute. Emerging infectious diseases pose a significant burden on human and animal health and global economies. The PREDICT project aims to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to the spillover of novel infectious pathogens from wildlife to humans. The goal of PREDICT in Malaysia is to integrate wildlife disease surveillance into the public health infrastructure in order to create an early warning system for potential zoonotic disease spillover into domestic animals and humans. PREDICT Malaysia is a collaboration between EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), Global Viral (GV), Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP), Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) and the Veterinary Research Institute (VRI), the Ministry of Health (MoH), Department of State Health Sabah (DSHS), Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) and Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC). Within the PREDICT project, EHA, SWD and DGFC established a Wildlife Health Unit (WHU), a branch of the Wildlife Rescue Unit (WRU) , to conduct active surveillance across Sabah. Samsir Bin Laimun, DGFC’s senior research assistant, is an active member of WHU, taking part in sampling expeditions in Kinabatangan and in other areas in Sabah. Moreover, EHA, SWD and DGFC set up the Wildlife Health Genetic and Forensic Laboratory (WHGFL) in Sabah, a BSL 2 Lab certified in accordance with laboratory standards set by the NIH and the CDC.
More information on PREDICT can be found here
Publications as part of the PREDICT Consortium:
Since 2011, DGFC has been actively collaborating with EcoHealth Alliance on zoonotic diseases. In addition, several training courses on zoonotic pathogens and primate sampling, safety and biosecurity protocols have been organised by EHA. The courses have been attended by staff from DGFC. The main projects we collaborate on are:
