Background

For more than ten years, the Wildlife Center of Virginia has studied and documented unusual patterns of disease it has discovered in its patients. Among the significant findings were: an epidemic of bacterial eye infections in house finches, a regional pattern of hydrocephalus in baby red foxes, and sinus/ear infections in Eastern box turtles that have been linked to pesticide exposure. Initially, the work was focused almost exclusively on issues related to the conservation of wildlife, but it soon became clear that monitoring emerging disease in wildlife could also have important implications for human health and safety. The Wildlife Center has now broadened its surveillance program to include all aspects of environment health, including wildlife diseases, diseases shared with domestic animals, and zoonotic diseases which can pose a threat to humans. West Nile Virus is but one example of a disease affecting wildlife, domestic animals, and humans that was literally tracked across the United States by monitoring its impacts on certain species of wild birds and mammals.

Project Tripwire was conceived as a network of participating wildlife care facilities that will share patient data for analysis. The premise is similar to that used in human health research. To find out what is making individuals sick, the place to look is where sick animals (or people) go first ... to the hospital. Wildlife hospitals and rehabilitation centers are usually the true first responders when a wildlife disease event takes place. When members of the public find a sick wild animal they don't contact government agencies, they call the local wildlife rehabilitator. By providing a powerful set of tools for data collection and analysis, along with comprehensive information on emerging diseases, Project Tripwire will enable participating wildlife care professionals to better recognize a disease outbreak and quickly report it to the proper authorities, thus maximizing the chances for an effective response.

Wildlife Disease Surveillance and National Defense

Following the devastating terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense initiated several new programs to enhance national defense and the collective war-fighting capabilities of the United States. It was recognized that protecting military personnel and the public from biological attack was critical to these efforts. Congress appropriated funding with which the Pentagon sought new tools and new strategies to combat bio-terrorism.

Among the programs identified for development was Epidemic Outbreak Surveillance (EOS), under the leadership of the United States Air Force Research Laboratory. According to Air Force experts, the survival rate for epidemic outbreaks is inversely proportional to the time required to detect and report the outbreak--if a disease outbreak is detected within 72 hours, mortality can be reduced by as much as 90 percent. Therefore, near real-time surveillance for "natural and hostile pathogens" was identified as a priority goal for EOS, with wildlife and environmental surveillance listed as among the most important aspects of the program. The most important criteria for surveillance tools and programs included the creation of systems to integrate a wide array of information and deliver "decision quality data" that will "enhance operational readiness and mission execution."

Five of the six disease pathogens identified by the U.S. government as Category A bioweapons are pathogenic to wildlife, can be spread by wildlife, and may affect wildlife populations. These Category A pathogens include anthrax, plague, Ebola, botulism, and tularemia. Other potentially devastating biosecurity threats include diseases like brucellosis, foot and mouth disease, avian cholera, and avian influenza, again all pathogenic to certain species of wildlife. The intentional or accidental introduction of these infectious disease agents to the environment could easily show up in wildlife first - potentially well before an outbreak is identified in humans or domestic animals.

While there are systems in place for disease surveillance in humans and domestic animals, prior to the creation of Project Tripwire, there were no tools for the comprehensive, coordinated, real-time monitoring of wildlife diseases, leaving what many regarded as a gaping hole in the nation's bioterrorism detection and defense systems.

To pursue its epidemic outbreak surveillance goals, the Air Force contracted with a number of partners and charged them with identifying and cultivating new technologies which could help implement EOS. One such partner was the Institute of Defense and Homeland Security (IDHS), a subsidiary of the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology.

Knowing that the Wildlife Center had a great deal of experience in wildlife disease surveillance, IDHS invited the Center to submit a proposal for the development of a system to monitor and detect emerging wildlife disease as a possible indicator of bioterrorism or other biosecurity threat.

The Role of the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Bioterrorism Surveillance

In spring 2006, the Wildlife Center was awarded a contract to evaluate Project Tripwire as a potential tool for the specific task of early detection of environmental bioterrorism. In August 2007, based upon the successful completion of the early concept analysis, the Wildlife Center won a second contract from IDHS, this time to create a working model of the Project Tripwire system through which emerging wildlife diseases with potential national security implications can be quickly identified and reported, and effective responses facilitated. That working model has now been created and Project Tripwire is being evaluated by national security agencies and others.

Once fully refined and deployed, Project Tripwire will network professionally staffed wildlife care clinics across North America. These facilities are likely to be the first to see individual cases of diseased wildlife, long before government agencies or other institutions notice population level effects, or human manifestations of any particular disease are detected. This contact includes animals infected by both "natural and hostile pathogens". By linking the records of these wildlife care centers to a central epidemiological database via the Internet, and creating automated reporting systems, the appearance of any new or unusual wildlife disease events can be more quickly detected and reported. Where bioterrorism is concerned, time is of the essence.

Project Tripwire - A Comprehensive Network

In addition to the critically important role in bioterrorism surveillance, Project Tripwire will be an important tool for a range of applications. For those participating wildlife care facilities, Project Tripwire provides a complete patient tracking system, including full analytical functions and mapping capabilities. This system will enable the wildlife rehabilitation community nationwide to standardize and coordinate data gathering functions. When coordinated action involving wildlife is called for [in the case of oil spills or other natural or manmade disasters for example], Project Tripwire's powerful mapping features and patient tracking capacity will allow the precise location where each animal is found to become part of the record, as well as its whereabouts during all phases of its treatment rehabilitation.

The analytical tools built into Project Tripwire will also be extremely valuable to the individual centers participating in the network. Each will be able to graph, map and analyze its current and past patient load in order to predict and plan for future patient intake. This information will not only assist in operational planning, but also could be extremely valuable for fundraising as well. If even a subtle anomaly or deviation in patient intake patterns occurs, the system will recognize and report it. The individual center will still be able to focus on the care of individual animals; Project Tripwire will constantly monitor the big picture. The network will also provide a conduit for the dissemination of up-to-the-minute information about emerging diseases and human health and safety issues.