A framework for managing biosecurity threats, devised by Loughborough University researchers is being trialled by the Pan-American branch of the World Health Organisation (WHO) with a view to rolling it out across the region to assess country capabilities to prevent and manage rabies, which is still a serious threat in many countries with large populations.

The framework addresses underlying threat prioritisation, enabling policies and policy makers to be highly adaptive in response to emerging biosecurity threats such as infectious diseases in crops, animal borne diseases, and outbreaks of newly emergent and epidemic diseases in humans.

Devised by Professors Gilberto Montibeller and Alberto Franco of Loughborough University’s School of Business Economics, the framework manages and accurately prioritises biosecurity threats, allowing resources to be allocated much more effectively. With limited resources for tackling emerging biosecurity threats, policy makers are under pressure to make strategic decisions quickly that consider the wider economic and social impact.

Talking to International Innovation, Montibeller explains, “Dealing with emergent threats is very tough because of the limited amount of evidence available when they appear, and the pressures imposed on policy makers to develop appropriate and timely responses to these threats.”

Montibeller and Franco’s work is already making a real difference to risk mitigation strategies in the UK and elsewhere. The framework was adopted by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to monitor biosecurity threats, has supported the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) to prioritise low-moisture foods considering their risk and trade volume, and has been continually evolving since its inception in 2008.

For the project with WHO the framework has been adapted to assess capabilities of different countries against rabies and support their resource allocation for capability building and maintenance.  The team hope that at the end of the yearlong trial in July 2016 their framework will be extended, with the support of the Merieux foundation, to agencies in Latin America, Asia and Africa as successes with DEFRA and WHO emerge.  The success of the trial will be determined by the implementation of the decision support system worldwide.

“Biosecurity threats, such as emergent diseases, will not go away and therefore managing them effectively is critical,” says Franco. “This is why we keep working with managers and policy makers to develop cutting edge decision methods to support and further develop risk prioritisation capability.”