SWD director Mohd Soffian Abu Bakar and Conservation Medicine director Tom Hughes after signing of the MOU for wildlife health and zoonotic surveillance.
KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) and Conservation Medicine (CM) have renewed their successful collaboration on wildlife health and zoonotic disease surveillance with the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
The partnership, which began in 2011, has already positioned Sabah as a regional leader in biosafety and conservation science, SWD director Mohd Soffian Abu Bakar said.
He said that the importance of this work provides for opportunities for early detection of zoonotic agents and responses to it.
“Understanding the diversity and prevalence of zoonotic agents in key wildlife species… provides opportunities for early detection and response to spillover events, limiting human and livestock mortality, while also putting in place our wildlife management strategies,” he said in a statement
At the heart of this collaboration is the Wildlife Health and Genetic Forensic Laboratory (WHGFL), established with the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) in lower Kinabatangan.
Certified to international standards since 2013, the laboratory achieved ISO17025 accreditation in 2024, making it one of only 11 dedicated wildlife laboratories worldwide to reach this benchmark.
The accreditation allows SWD to process forensic samples for prosecutions, strengthening its fight against illegal wildlife trade and poaching.
Conservation Medicine director Tom Hughes said that increasing contact between people, livestock, and wild animals through agriculture expansion, hunting, and land conversion are driving factors behind disease emergence.
“Two new diseases have jumped from animals to humans every year, on average, over the last century,” he said.
In 2013, SWD and CM established the Sabah Wildlife Health Unit (WHU) to evaluate rescued and relocated wildlife and conduct sampling trips across the state. CM has provided regular training in biosafety, disease testing, and outbreak response to SWD’s officers and rangers.
According to the statement, it was important for research on diseases to be carried out as it helps in the conservation efforts.
Based on surveillance of confiscated and rescued Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica), they confirmed that pangolins were not reservoirs or intermediary hosts for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
Virus detections in pangolins were likely due to exposure during the illegal wildlife trade as such the findings highlight the need to end wildlife trafficking and improve biosecurity at wet markets, while reinforcing pangolin conservation efforts, the statement said.
Apart from its work in Sabah, CM collaborated with the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit and WHO SEARO to develop a practical guide for implementing the WHO Laboratory Biosafety Manual (4th Edition).
The manual provides step-by-step biosafety instructions, tailored for low-resource settings but applicable worldwide.
