Marguerite
Pappaioanou, epidemiology and
community health
“This is very
much about research, trying to get good data that can guide
public health decisions about how to protect people from exposure
to viruses from which a pandemic strain could evolve.”
-Marguerite Pappaioanou
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In
1918–19, approximately 20 million people died when an avian
influenza virus developed the ability to infect humans, causing
the Spanish flu pandemic. In 1957 and again in 1968,
other avian influenza virus strains joined forces with human viruses,
resulting in two more pandemics that killed tens of thousands worldwide.
How, when, and why do animal viruses cross species boundaries
to infect people? Finding the answer to that question is key to
preventing and controlling future deadly outbreaks. It also is the
aim of the University of Minnesota’s new Zoonotic
Disease
Cooperative Research Center, which links experts from the
University, Minnesota Department of Health, Marshfield Clinic, Minnesota
Board of Animal Health, Minnesota Department
of Agriculture, Mayo Clinic, and Chulalongkorn University
in Bangkok, Thailand, in a coordinated effort to understand
the epidemiology of avian influenza.
“We want to fill in some of the unknowns regarding how these
viruses go across species barriers,” says professor Marguerite
Pappaioanou, who holds a joint appointment in the School
of Public Health and the College of Veterinary Medicine and is principal
investigator for the three-year, $2.6 million Centers for Disease
Control grant that created the center. “This is very much
about research, trying to get good data that can guide public health
decisions about how to protect people from exposure to viruses from
which a pandemic strain could evolve.”
To learn where avian influenza viruses are found, how they spread,
and the human health threats they pose, collaborators
will test backyard poultry flocks, wild waterfowl, and hogs —
as
well as humans who spend time with them — for the presence
of viruses and antibodies. What factors influence transmission?
How well do protective gear and hygiene, as used in field conditions,
prevent human exposure? These are the kinds of questions the researchers
will seek to answer.
A number of College of Veterinary Medicine faculty members have
a part in the effort. Sagar Goyal, a professor
in the Veterinary Population Medicine Department,
is in charge of testing for the presence of viruses and antibodies
in animals. College researchers Marie Gramer and
Jeffrey Bender will help assess swine operations.
(Pigs, which can be simultaneously infected with swine, avian, and
human viruses, are widely viewed as a “mixing vessel”
in which viruses can exchange genetic material needed to cross species
boundaries.) Other College faculty members serving as coinvestigators
or advisors include David Halvorson, William
Hueston, Patrick Redig, and Andre
Ziegler.
For more information about avian influenza, go to www.cvm.umn.edu/ai.
By Mary Hoff
Excerpted from the Winter 2007 issue of Profiles,
a publication of the College of Veterinary Medicine.
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