Policies to prevent zoonotic spillover: a systematic scoping review of evaluative evidence

Clifford Astbury, Chloe; Lee, Kirsten M.; Mcleod, Ryan; Aguiar, Raphael; Atique, Asma; Balolong, Marilen; Clarke, Janielle; Demeshko, Anastassia; Labonté, Ronald; Ruckert, Arne; Sibal, Priyanka; Togño, Kathleen Chelsea; Viens, A. M.; Wiktorowicz, Mary; Yambayamba, Marc K.; Yau, Amy; Penney, Tarra L.

doi:10.1186/s12992-023-00986-x

Globalization and Health

Table 2 Policies identified across the pathway to zoonotic spillover, adapted from [12, 13]

From: Policies to prevent zoonotic spillover: a systematic scoping review of evaluative evidence

Stage in pathway	Policy types and example studies	Policy instrument	Policy success¹
Wildlife distribution and density	Culling of wildlife populations [64]	Service provision	Success
	Sterilisation of wildlife populations [64]	Service provision	Success
	Supplemental feeding of wildlife [65]	Service provision	Equivocal
	Habitat protection [66]	Legislation	Success
Pathogen prevalence in wildlife	Vaccination campaign using oral bait [67,68,69]	Service provision	Success
Pathogen prevalence in wildlife	Border surveillance and biosecurity [70]	Legislation	Success
Infection intensity and pathogen release in wildlife	None identified	N/A	N/A
Wildlife pathogen survival and spread	Regulations around disposing of infected wildlife carcasses [71]	Regulation	Success
Domesticated animal exposure	Mandated separation of wildlife and livestock [72]	Legislation	N/A
	Ban on feeding catering waste to livestock [73]	Legislation	N/A
	Information leaflets to change animal owner behaviour (e.g., stabling animals overnight, placing feed and water away from wooded areas where wildlife live) [74, 75]	Communication/marketing	N/A
Within-domesticated animal barriers	Vaccination of livestock or other domesticated animals [74, 76,77,78]	Service provision (providing government veterinarians offering free vaccination) Legislation (mandating livestock vaccinations to be undertaken by owners)	Success
Domesticated animal distribution and density	Limits on live animal market size [79]	Legislation	Success
Pathogen prevalence in domesticated animals	Animal quarantine (testing, prophylaxis, culling of infected animals) [80]	Legislation	N/A
	Screen and cull of infected animals [81,82,83]	Legislation	Success
	Pre-emptive cull (e.g. ring cull, general cull) [84, 85]	Legislation	Equivocal
Infection intensity and pathogen release in domesticated animals	None identified	N/A	N/A
Pathogen survival and spread in domesticated animals	Mandated rest days in live animal markets [86, 87]	Legislation	Success
	Mandated disinfection of livestock premises [88,89,90]	Legislation	Success
	Information campaign to encourage improved biosecurity practices in live animal markets [91]	Communication/marketing	Success
	Legislation around disposing of infected livestock carcasses [92, 93]	Legislation	N/A
Human exposure	Live animal market closure [89, 94,95,96]	Legislation	Equivocal
	Ban on trade, hunting, sale or consumption of wildlife [97,98,99]	Legislation	Equivocal
	Information campaign encouraging safer hunting practice [100, 101]	Communication/marketing	N/A
	Guidelines for visitor and exhibitor hand sanitation at agricultural fairs [102, 103]	Communication/marketing	N/A
	Mandated central slaughtering [104]	Legislation	N/A
Within-human barriers	Post-exposure prophylaxis (e.g. after encountering wildlife or a domesticated animal with symptoms of zoonotic disease) [105, 106]	Service provision	N/A
	Targeted vaccination of individuals with occupational exposure to animals (e.g. poultry workers) [107]	Service provision	N/A
	Mass drug administration for humans in areas of endemic disease and widespread exposure to animals [108]	Service provision	Equivocal
Multiple stages	Multi-component interventions [109,110,111,112,113,114]	Multiple approaches	Equivocal

¹Equivocal: outcome measures varied in different directions or studies had different findings, some indicating success and some indicating failure; success: outcome measure(s) varied in the intended direction; failure: outcome measure(s) did not vary in the intended direction; N/A: no impact or outcome evaluations of this policy type identified in the review

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ISSN: 1744-8603

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