WiLiMan-ID

WiLiMan-ID stands for: Ecology of Wildlife, Livestock, huMan and Infectious Diseases in changing environments.

Approximately 75% of all emerging, re-emerging or known infectious diseases (IDs) originate from animals, in particular from wildlife, of which 60% have zoonotic (animal-to-human) potential of transmission. Spill-over of IDs from wildlife species to livestock and humans thus represents a major threat to food supplies, the global economy, and public health.

WiLiMan-ID addresses the complexity of host-pathogen interactions for five animal IDs that are ranked as high priority and circulate between livestock and wildlife. The diseases include four viruses: Avian influenca, African swine fever, West-Nile virus, African hourse sickness; and one prion disease called Chronic wasting disease. Two of them cause severe economic losses to farming systems and three represent a threat to human health.

The main goal of WiLiMan-ID is to identify key drivers of how these five diseases disseminate and persist in ever-changing environments. The project will do this by integrating data at different scales, from the level of pathogens to the hosts and, finally, to the community of hosts and the environment. That integrated data will provide policy makers with innovative strategies and methods for prevention, surveillance, and control.

• WiLiMan-ID is a Horizon EU project launched in 2023 and scheduled to run for the next 5 years with funding of around 6 million Euros.
• WiLiMan-ID brings together 13 partner organizations from 9 EU and 2 non-EU countries

WiLiMan-ID has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101083833.