During an informal working visit to NIOO-KNAW on Wednesday 6 July, His Majesty the King was informed about how ecological knowledge can contribute to understanding and predicting outbreaks of zoonotic infectious diseases.
During a roundtable discussion, Henk van der Jeugd, head of the Bird Migration Station of the NIOO-KNAW, stressed the importance of surveillance of wild birds, which can be hosts of diseases such as highly pathogenic avian influenza and West Nile virus. The surveillance of wild birds is carried out by well-trained volunteer bird ringers and is a joint effort of Erasmus MC, the Ringers Association and NIOO-KNAW. With surveillance, circulation can be demonstrated at an early stage so that adequate measures can be taken. Surveillance has already provided important information on the occurrence of two new mosquito-borne infectious diseases in the Netherlands: Usutu virus (as of 2016) and West Nile virus (in 2020).

Chairman of the Ringers Association, Tijs van den Berg, emphasised that such large-scale surveillance cannot be carried out without the efforts of hundreds of volunteers, but expressed concerns about its continuity. "The surveillance provides crucial information on infectious diseases that can pose a public health risk, but it is not currently guaranteed with government funding. Setting up and coordinating research projects by scientific institutes guarantees good scientific anchoring, but in the longer term, surveillance will have to be financed by the national government".

For more information on current and future research projects in this field, please visit: www.onehealthpact.org and PDPC.
Pictures by Milette Raats, KNAW