News
WBVR, WFSR and RIVM work together on infectious disease database
Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR, part of Wageningen University & Research) is a partner in the European project UNITED4Surveillance. The aim of this project is to improve infectious disease monitoring programmes in the participating countries. “In the Netherlands, the first focus in this is on food-borne infections caused by Salmonella and Campylobacter,” says WBVR researcher Dré Kampfraath, involved in United4Surveillance.
United4Surveillance started in 2023. The consortium connects 40 partners from 24 European countries. The main goal of this international project is to strengthen infectious disease monitoring systems at the national level. “Each country has its own systems for monitoring, which is why the national approach in implementation was chosen, but with an international context, so that we can exchange knowledge, experiences and best practices with each other to achieve the best possible result,” explains WBVR researcher Dré Kampfraath.
Netherlands
To optimise domestic monitoring, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Wageningen Food Safety Research (WFSR, part of Wageningen University & Research and the NVWA's executive laboratory for foodborne pathogens) and WBVR are collaborating within the UNITED4Surveillance project. The aim of this collaboration is to create a shared database. “Last year, we started with a joint stakeholder analysis and an inventory of different sample streams.”
Database
The next step is to create a shared database that brings together information from the three institutes. “For this, we initially focus on the bacteria Salmonella and Campylobacter. These are the two main causative agents of foodborne infections in the Netherlands. In the database, we want to bring data together. Here, the OneHealth approach is the guiding principle for combining human, food-related and veterinary data from RIVM, WFSR and WBVR, respectively.”
Linking
In current practice, human and veterinary sample flows and datasets are often strictly separated, simply because responsibility for them is assigned to different institutes. By linking information, the collaborating parties expect to gain more insight into infectious diseases. This knowledge can then benefit preventive strategies and, for example, provide insight into how a disease spreads.
Optimisation
“In veterinary monitoring at WBVR, we have a lot of information about the different bacterial isolates. In that context, we do genetic analyses, among other things. That means we have insight into the genomes.” Using this, Kampfraath says it is also possible to look at origin (start of infection) and spread of a bacterium. Linking such information to information available on human infections results in optimisation of monitoring, the researcher believes. Kampfraath is project leader for UNITED4Surveillance within WBVR and also links to it four ongoing WBVR projects under the Statutory Tasks.
United4Surveillance is a three-year project. The next two years focus on optimising the monitoring programme for Salmonella and Campylobacter, including by setting up a joint database.