“Human intersection with ecosystems, which is driven by urban expansion, along with the proximity of agricultural lands to wildlife habitats and the extending range of wildlife reservoirs collectively amplify the occurrence of zoonotic diseases,” Dass says.

This research project employs SARS-CoV-2 as a model virus to study spillover events from white-tailed deer to livestock, examine mechanisms of virus persistence in the environment, and assess their potential effect on human health.

“We want to determine what we can do before a disease reaches the point of vaccinating humans; fix the root cause,” she says. “The root cause is the wildlife and livestock intermingling. If we can take care of that, we can prevent overwhelming the healthcare system, which took a beating during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.”

The project

The project allows both wildlife and livestock to be put in a controlled environment to see whether the transmission happens. It is a lengthy procedure, but the USDA’s National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa, has done a phenomenal job of cohabiting the animals so “we can get real-world disease transmission results,” Dass says.

“With our systems approach, we can look at environmental maintenance of the virus, using our Biosafety Safety Level 3 facility at the Global Health Research Complex,” she says. “For example, what occurs in a water trough or elsewhere when both livestock and wildlife drink water from the same source on the rangeland?”

Dass says this complex research requires collaboration between scientists from different specialties working together — people in animal disease, veterinary biosciences, wildlife and genomics.

The team working with Dass includes:

• Tammi Johnson, AgriLife Research wildlife disease ecologist and associate professor in the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management, Uvalde, concentrating on wildlife disease ecology.
• Martial Ndeffo, assistant professor, Texas A&M Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Bryan–College Station, who specializes in infectious disease transdisciplinary modeling.
• Paola Boggiatto, National Animal Disease Center, Ames, Iowa, who works on mixed-species disease transmission between white-tailed deer and livestock at the animal biosafety Level 3 lab.
• Jason McDermott, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash., who specializes in systems biology and multiomics modeling.

“Infectious disease transmission is expected to happen,” Dass says. “But, we’ll find out if and how it can be controlled by limiting exposure.”

Editor’s note: Kay Ledbetter is communications manager for AgriLife Marketing and Communications for Texas A&M AgriLife.

Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA, Vol. 16, No. 12-B