Nigeria, with a population of over 190 million people, is rated among the 10 countries with the highest burden of infectious and zoonotic diseases globally. In Nigeria, there exists a sub-optimal surveillance system to monitor and track priority zoonoses. We therefore conducted a prioritization of zoonotic diseases for the first time in Nigeria to guide prevention and control efforts. Towards this, a two-day in-country consultative meeting involving experts from the human, animal, and environmental health backgrounds prioritized zoonotic diseases using a modified semi-quantitative One Health Zoonotic Disease Prioritization tool in July 2017. Overall, 36 of 52 previously selected zoonoses were identified for prioritization. Five selection criteria were used to arrive at the relative importance of prioritized diseases based on their weighted score. Overall, this zoonotic disease prioritization process marks the first major step of bringing together experts from the human-animal-environment health spectrum in Nigeria. Importantly, the country ranked rabies, avian influenza, Ebola Virus Disease, swine influenza and anthrax as the first five priority zoonoses in Nigeria. Finally, this One Health approach to prioritizing important zoonoses is a step that will help to guide future tracking and monitoring of diseases of grave public health importance in Nigeria.

Foodborne zoonotic diseases and pathogens related to climate change are of considerable concern for public health because they have impacts on food systems at the production, transportation, processing, storage, and preparation and consumption levels. These impacts all can stand in the way of sustainable socioeconomic development and progress. Various multidimensional variables associated with the diseases and pathogens can be categorized in six subsystems: (i) ecological degradation, (ii) extreme weather events, (iii) supply chain management, (iv) food safety, (v) disaster management and (vi) public health policy. The variables related to these categories interact in a nonlinear way in complex adaptive systems. Various multidimensional variables, data management systems and advanced methods are required to model this complex issue. Hence, a model based on complex adaptive systems and blockchain technology-enabled agent-based modeling is proposed in this paper in order to assess the public health impact of foodborne zoonotic diseases and pathogens related to climate change. This model can be useful for identifying the risks and vulnerabilities related to the diseases and pathogens present in food systems.

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Sofia
Journal Co-ordinator
Journal of Rare Disorders: Diagnosis & Therapy