HUM-ANI
The HUM-ANI project, supported by the BNP Paribas Foundation, seeks to support interdisciplinary research on the transmission of pathogens between wild animals, domestic animals, and humans.
Led by Eve Miguel, researcher in Ecology and Epidemiology at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), the project focuses upon three pillars:
- Ecology: to track animal movements and species diversity in different climatic conditions by fitting over 70 GPS collars and settle 30 camera traps to observe the different wild and domestic animal species.
- Epidemiology: to detect the presence of infectious pathogens in the target species and analyse the transmission dynamics, based on non-invasive sampling from saliva and faeces left in the environment.
- Social sciences: to better understand how humans use the resources in protected areas (e.g. pasturelands, water sources, bush meat) in times of climatic and economic crises, through social surveys and workshops.
The project forms a part of the foundations work to address the SDGs, and within the current context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the nature of the links between climate change, biodiversity erosion and pandemic is more important than ever.