Veterinary Public Health Institute

Current Projects

Cuba - avian influenza virus

Development of transmission model and human-animal-environment interface for the avian influenza virus

Staff involved: Damarys Montano Valle, Luís Pedro Carmo and John Berezowski

Duration: October 2020 – ongoing

Damarys Montano Valle obtained a Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships from the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation. This project is being conducted within the scope of her doctoral studies.

Avian influenza is an exotic disease in Cuba. The presence of risk factors associated with its introduction in different regions of the world, confirms the importance of maintaining a continuous surveillance to prevent the disease introduction into the national poultry production sector. The objective of this project is to improve the risk-based surveillance system established for avian influenza virus in Cuba. This project will:

1) develop a model of avian influenza virus transmission between commercial and backyard poultry populations.

2) characterize the human-animal-environment interface for influenza viruses.

We plan to use a combination of methods from disease modeling to participatory approaches with stakeholders from the Cuban poultry production system. The results from this project will serve as a basis for the design and implementation of surveillance systems using a One Health approach.