ERRAZE Pandemic Preparedness

ERRAZE Pandemic Preparedness (2022-2025).

In the ERRAZE@WUR research and investment framework, researchers from various disciplines work together to help build the scientific foundation needed to prevent future pandemics and to limit their impact.

As part of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology group at Wageningen University, I work on a generic simulation model for large-scale disease outbreaks in the Netherlands that potentially cross boundaries between wildlife and livestock hosts, with input from several colleagues. The main idea is to have a skeleton model ready for a wide variety of diseases.

Our first test case was the Bluetongue virus outbreak of 2023, which, when implemented in the framework highlighted some of the challenges in data (trade, weather, midge dispersion) and knowledge (how to think about host preference). We are now working to resolve these issues and apply the model to other diseases. 

A diagram depicting the flow of diseases between farms, livestock, wildlife and the environment
Logo of ErrazeSIM, the framework for wildlife and livestock disease modeling build on SimInf, and scaled to the Netherland

You can read more at the website of ERRAZE

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My background is in theoretical biology, and I have specialized in the analysis and modelling of the evolution, epidemiology and ecology of infectious diseases. At Wageningen University, I work on diseases that move between wildlife, livestock and humans.

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