One Health System Supporting Surveillance During COVID-19 Epidemic in Abruzzo Region, Southern Italy

13 Pages Posted: 5 Oct 2022

See all articles by Alessio Di Lorenzo

Alessio Di Lorenzo

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale

Iolanda Mangone

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale

Patrizia Colangeli

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale

Daniela Cioci

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale

Valentina Curini

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale

Giacomo Vincifori

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale

Maria Teresa Mercante

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale

Adriano Di Pasquale

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale

Simona Iannetti

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale

Abstract

The Istituti Zooprofilattici Sperimentali (IZSs) are public health institutes dealing with the aetiology and pathogenesis of infectious diseases of domestic and wild animals. During Coronavirus Disease 2019 epidemic, the Italian Ministry of Health appointed the IZSs to carry out diagnostic tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in human samples, with the aim of supporting the National Health Care System by increasing the total capacity of the analysis laboratories. In particular, the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale of Abruzzo and Molise (IZS-Teramo) was involved in the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 through testing nasopharyngeal swabs by Real Time RT-PCR. Activities and infrastructures were reorganised and adapted to the new priorities, in a "One Health" framework, based on interdisciplinary, laboratory promptness, accreditation of the test for the detection of the RNA of SARS-CoV-2 in human samples, and management of confidentiality of sensitive data. The laboratory information system – SILAB – was implemented with a One Health module appropriate for managing of data of human origin, with tools for the automatic registration of information which allowed avoiding errors and improving the quality of the data. Over 590.000 human samples were tested during the 2020 and 2021 epidemic, and up to 4000 samples were daily tested. Over 88.0% of the test results were reported within 24 hours from the delivery and registration of the samples in SILAB. Moreover, the “National Reference Centre for Whole Genome Sequencing of microbial pathogens - database and bioinformatics analysis” – GENPAT – formally established at the IZS-Teramo, developed bioinformatics workflows and IT dashboard with ad hoc surveillance tools to support the metagenomics-based SARS-CoV-2 surveillance, providing molecular sequencing analysis to quickly intercept the variants circulating in the area. This manuscript describes the One Health system developed by the IZS-Teramo, by adapting and integrating both SILAB and GENPAT tools for supporting surveillance during COVID-19 epidemic in Abruzzo region, southern Italy.

Note:

Funding Information: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Declaration of Interests: None.

Keywords: Bioinformatics analysis, COVID-19 surveillance, laboratory information system, metagenomics, One Health

Suggested Citation

Di Lorenzo, Alessio and Mangone, Iolanda and Colangeli, Patrizia and Cioci, Daniela and Curini, Valentina and Vincifori, Giacomo and Mercante, Maria Teresa and Di Pasquale, Adriano and Iannetti, Simona, One Health System Supporting Surveillance During COVID-19 Epidemic in Abruzzo Region, Southern Italy. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4220797 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4220797

Alessio Di Lorenzo

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale ( email )

Iolanda Mangone (Contact Author)

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale ( email )

Patrizia Colangeli

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale ( email )

Daniela Cioci

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale ( email )

Valentina Curini

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale ( email )

Giacomo Vincifori

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale ( email )

Maria Teresa Mercante

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale ( email )

Adriano Di Pasquale

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale ( email )

Simona Iannetti

Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise ‘G. Caporale ( email )

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