Sri Lanka is a tropical nation within a zoogeographic zone that is at high risk for infectious disease emergence. In 2010, a study was conducted on the feasibility of enhancing capacity in Sri Lanka to manage wildlife diseases through the establishment of a national wildlife health centre. The Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre was assessed as a potential model for adaptation in Sri Lanka. Interviews and group meetings were conducted with potential key participants from the Sri Lankan Departments of Wildlife Conservation and Animal Production and Health, and the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science of the University of Peradeniya. In addition, site visits were made to potentially participating facilities and the literature on best practices in building scientific capacity was consulted. With strategic enhancements in education and training, additional personnel, improvements in transportation and diagnostic facilities, and central coordination, Sri Lanka appears very well positioned to establish a sustainable wildlife health centre and programme.
Management of zoonotic infectious diseases is an urgent global heath imperative. Interdisciplinary approaches for zoonosis management exist in literature, but collaboratively implementing them is a pervasive challenge. The Sri Lanka Wildlife Health Centre (SLWHC) was created in 2011 to coordinate wildlife disease surveillance and response among government agencies. We interviewed SLWHC‐affiliated personnel about existing communication and collaboration channels to identify operational needs as well as potential enhancements for the SLWHC's operations. We used the Policy Sciences' analytical framework to identify opportunities and challenges for the SLWHC. Study participants held both human and animal health as the utmost priorities. However, their observations indicate that inter‐organizational communication barriers and intra‐organizational hierarchies still need to be overcome for the Centre's partnering organizations to collaborate to their fullest potential. Any interventions to enhance the SLWHC's collaborative capacity for detecting and managing zoonotic disease outbreaks could be strengthened by appealing to participants' shared value orientations towards enlightenment and respect. A common interest was the desire to collaborate and combine resources, knowledge and personnel to detect, reduce and prevent the incidence of zoonotic disease outbreaks in Sri Lanka. These lessons about institutionalizing communication have considerable relevance for organizational responses to the current SARS‐CoV2 pandemic and other zoonoses.
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