To address the global spread of Bd it is crucial that a dedicated system is available to collect, map and model the prevalence of infection to aid control measures directed against Bd. We have developed this web-based data collection and mapping tool viewable by differing audiences (scientists, policy makers, the public) and aimed at addressing a number of questions (spread, epidemiology, evolution, control). The overarching aim of Bd-Maps is to provide a truly global, community-focussed resource .All data is presented in a geographical context allowing identification of areas of potential spread and temporal analysis allows previous spread to be modelled and used to identify areas of concern. Multiple private databases are available for users (herein data managers) to enter and analyse their data separately and securely or in conjunction with publicly available data and for such analyses to be directed towards policy makers, resource managers, the general public and the scientific community. All the data on the public site will be downloadable, allowing further analysis and synthesis by interested parties.
Surveillance - see here Data statistics are available detailing site numbers, countries and species recorded. Countries are ranked based on prevalence and community defined cut-off levels can be set and emails sent to individuals should prevalence/incidence in a particular country exceed the cut-off level. The same facility is available based on the prevalence of Bd infection is specific species. More resolved summaries are available as follows: 1) Country summaries - see here Any country represented in the database can be viewed through the country summary. Along with a map detailing distribution, summary statistics for sites, samples and species collected, data is returned indicating diagnostic techniques and genotypes if known, which can again be utilised in phylogenetic analysis. Using eBURST, genotypes within the country of choice can be compared to the global population highlighting those genotypes that are found within and outside of the country of choice. Within country surveillance is undertaken at the species level and country specific-cutoffs can be set by data managers. Centres of excellence, registers of expertise, testing laboratories and country specific information is also accessible from within these pages and it is envisioned that this will act as a central Bd resource for each country. 2) Species summaries - see here The global distribution of any species submitted can be viewed. Statistics are viewable indicating number of individuals, number of sites sampled and number of those genotyped. All data for the species is listed below a map of distribution and links to the IUCN and GAA are available on a species basis. Closer linking with the Edge Amphibians website4 is being implemented to provide greater species-specific information, specifically for species that are known to be of priority conservation concern 3) Sequence Type Summaries - see here Global distribution of an individual genotype can be viewed detailing numbers of genotypes isolates, number of sample sites and closely related genotypes. As genotyping becomes more widespread this facility will allow the global molecular epidemiology and evolutionary biology of Bd to be investigated and it is envisioned that genotypes will be assigned centrally so that data is comparable between laboratories. We developed these analytical techniques using the informatic backbone that has proven success in managing the molecular multilocus typing schemes that are in widespread use in public health investigations of human bacterial and fungal pathogens5 Database interrogation - see here Standard database interrogation tools are available to return data based on a user entered criteria. For example – all isolates not found in USA which have been confirmed using qPCR. To address data privacy issues and to ensure users
have faith in the community nature of the facility, we provide
private databases allowing users to enter their own data securely
and to have full control over whether this data is kept private
or made viewable to the community as a whole. Users can view their data for surveillance purposes with the same summaries as the publicly available data – country summaries, species summaries or genotype summaries. Furthermore, users can analyse their own data combined with publicly available data. NB: All private data is only accessible and full ownership belongs to the user. The decision to allow data to be viewed publicly is yours. to request a private database please contact us To disseminate information to the community in a timely fashion the Bd site has a number of associated BLOGS. The main BLOG can be accessed from the frontpage of the website - http://spatialepidemiology.blogspot.com A list of relevant articles indexed in PubMed is available as an RSS feed from the front page. We encourage users to let us know of articles not included and / or relevant articles not in published in the scientific literature (Press and media articles, other BLOG posts, newsgroups etc.) Click here -The ability to download data and generation of
standard reports. 1) The
World Conservation Unit - http://www.iucn.org/ For further details or to register contact - David Aanensen or Matthew Fisher |
