Preventing ZOonotic Disease Emergence (PREZODE)

PREZODE recognizes that preventing zoonoses requires understanding complex socio-ecological drivers. It brings together experts from agriculture, ecology, public health and policy to tackle issues like wildlife trade, livestock management, land-use change and climate impacts. By focusing on upstream factors (for example, how changing habitats affect pathogen spread) and supporting field surveillance, PREZODE aims to stop new threats at the source rather than waiting for human cases to appear

Objectives

PREZODE’s mission is defined by a multi-faceted research and action agenda. Its main objectives include:

• Map and analyze zoonotic risk factors: Develop an international research framework to identify the macro-scale processes and drivers (environmental, social and biological) that enable pathogens to spill over from animals to people
• Co-design risk-reduction solutions: Work with local communities, governments and industry to create practical One Health strategies. These may include sustainable land-use practices, wildlife management guidelines, biosecurity measures in farming, or new surveillance tools tailored to regional contexts
• Strengthen early warning and surveillance: Build and deploy coordinated monitoring systems (including data-sharing platforms and indicators) to detect unusual animal or human illness rapidly. By integrating veterinary, environmental and public health surveillance, PREZODE seeks to catch emerging threats earlier and trigger timely responses.
• Facilitate knowledge-sharing and capacity-building: Serve as a global hub and resource centre, supporting countries to implement science-based prevention policies. The initiative promotes dialogues among scientists, policymakers and civil society, ensuring that insights and best practices (for example from field projects or pilot programs) are shared across borders and sectors.

The ultimate aim is to translate research into concrete public health actions, reducing pandemic risks without compromising food security or livelihoods.

The Role of the Pasteur Network

As one of the initiative’s founding partners, the Network connects dozens of Pasteur Institutes and partner laboratories in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe to PREZODE’s mission. In practice, this means leading collaborative activities and capacity-building across member institutes. For example, the Network leads PREZODE’s “international collaboration” work package, ensuring that emerging data and insights (from its 30+ member institutes) are shared rapidly among all PREZODE stakeholders.

The Network also helps organize and co-host high-level events. In April 2024, for instance, the Pasteur Network co-organized a major conference in Panama on PREZODE themes. 

Pasteur Network members are also contributing to PREZODE-funded science projects. Notably, several Pasteur Network members (Institut Pasteur de Guyane, Institut Pasteur de Guadeloupe, Institut Pasteur de Nouvelle Calédonie and Institut Pasteur, Paris) are partners in the AMAZED project on Amazonian arboviruses, a multidisciplinary PREZODE research program that received €2.5 million in France 2030 funding. 

These joint efforts demonstrate how the Network translates PREZODE’s vision into concrete action – training staff, sharing data and co-developing One Health solutions from the local to the global scale.