An unassuming bird specimen in our natural history collection holds some important secrets. In its tissue, pathogens are preserved that continue to cause disease even now. Amongst them are influenza viruses, the cause of the flu. If they mutate and jump to humans, a single infection could trigger a pandemic.
Scientists refer to diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans as zoonoses. This is not a new phenomenon: Zoonoses have been part of human history for as long as humans have lived with, hunted, or kept animals. The speed and extent to which they are able to spread, however, is new. Increasing use of natural habitats, global trade and travel, and the flows of goods make the contact between animals, livestock, and humans closer than ever. These are ideal environments for influenza viruses as wild birds will carry them over long distances, and large poultry flocks allow rapid multiplication and mutation. Viruses can jump to humans wherever people are in close contact with poultry—when caring for, slaughtering, or processing the animals.
Pandemics don’t happen by chance but develop from the interaction between humans, animals, and the environment – often long before they are noticed. Understanding these connections is a key component to preparing for them. To this end, the LIB combines research into biodiversity with issues of global health. The motto of “One Health, One Future” clearly reflects that a future resilient to pandemics can only grow on the basis of knowledge about nature.
Putting it simply:
Pandemic
The term of pandemic refers to an infectious disease that spreads worldwide. This can happen when pathogens reach new animal species, mutate, and are subsequently transmitted from person to person. Changes in habitats or close contact with animals can facilitate this.
Tackling prevention together:
The Leibniz Lab Pandemic Preparedness
Pandemic prevention is an interdisciplinary task involving a collaboration of virology, infectiology, medicine, ecology, evolutionary, and biodiversity research, as well as social and environmental sciences. This is precisely where the Leibniz Lab Pandemic Preparedness, an interdisciplinary think tank with a strong focus on implementation, comes in. 41 Leibniz Institutes are united under its umbrella with the goal of identifying risks early and preventing pandemics wherever possible.
The guiding principle “One Health, One Future” marks the lab’s work, reflecting an integrated approach to health – as an interconnected system of humans, animals, and the environment. Instead of merely reacting after pathogens have already spread, prevention is front and centre here.
The LIB adds a unique perspective to this network as biological collections not only preserve species but also traces of past infections. Fragments of genetic material from pathogens can be preserved in historical specimens in certain cases—even including sensitive RNA viruses such as influenza. Modern molecular genetic methods enable us to analyse such fragments to compare them to current virus variants, enabling researchers to trace long-term changes, such as how influenza viruses have adapted to new hosts over decades.
Dr Madlen Stange, Leibniz Junior Research Group Leader at the LIB, investigates how genetic diversity, ecological conditions, and evolutionary processes shape the interaction between hosts and pathogens from a genomic and ecological perspective for the Leibniz-Lab Pandemic Preparedness. This research helps us understand the role of biodiversity in infection risks. High biodiversity is a contributing factor to protection against infectious diseases. Genetic diversity creates buffers through specialised hosts and preserves a greater spatial distance between humans and potential disease carriers in intact ecosystems.
This turns collections into an archive to improve understanding of present-day risks based on knowledge of the past: With more than 16 million animal specimens – supplemented by active molecular biodiversity research – the collections at the LIB offer insights into past ecosystem conditions as well as into the interactions and co-evolution of animals and their pathogens. “We can trace developments over long periods of time this way,” explains Madlen Stange, adding: “This type of research is particularly suitable for learning from past events and recognising patterns for future application.”
Long-term genetic time series reveal how pathogens and their hosts adapt together. Historical genetic developments of infectious diseases can be reconstructed, genetic adaptations identified, and evolutionary changes in the host understood.
This brings us full circle to the bird specimen in the collection: Influenza viruses that continue to circulate in wild birds today leave their traces there. Collections help us understand these changes – long before they become visible to us humans. Pandemic prevention doesn’t start when disease strikes but develops from research, collections, and a shared vision of health that connects humans, animals, and our environment.