Abstract:
Decade-old (1) and recent warnings for
coronaviruses with zoonotic epidemic
potential (2) could have prevented the
emergence of coronavirus disease 2019
(COVID-19) (3). We therefore agree with
Watsa and colleagues (“Rigorous wildlife
disease surveillance,” Perspective, 10 July,
p. 145) that wildlife biosurveillance should
increase. However, representing animals
as a threat to humans through disease
transmission leads to ill-conceived reactive policies (4). A perspective (5) in which
animals and humans share similar risks of
pathogens and infections, making animals
relevant disease models and sentinels,
would be more effective. Clarifying the connection between animal and human health
could increase public support for research
seeking to understand host-switching in
animals, such as the study of virusevolution
(6), interactions in pathogen communities
(7), and pathogen discovery (8).
A shared-risk perspective on emerging infectious diseases mirrors the field
of EcoHealth, which explores the links
between ecosystem, animal, and human
health. Such strategies place value in
healthy ecosystems through an integrative
LETTERS
approach that considers both pathogen
biodiversity and social-ecological drivers
(9). Prevention based on understanding
the transmission of pathogens through
EcoHealth-based emerging infectious
disease surveillance is a promising avenue
for sustainability science, orders of magnitude cheaper than mitigation in response
to a transfer to human hosts (10), and less
intrusive than current crisis responses
