For half a century, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been on the front lines of protecting the U.S. homeland by improving global health security. Thanks to the generosity of the American people, the United States contributed more than $140 billion in global health assistance in the 21st Century alone, including more than $1 billion to strengthen national capacity in partner countries to prevent, detect, and respond to existing and emerging-infectious disease threats.

Since 2005, USAID has made significant investments, including under the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), to identify new threats to public health, the possible animal vectors or hosts for deadly viruses and other dangerous pathogens, and the pathways for the transmission of these pathogens from animals to people. This work is more important than ever in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One contribution by USAID to the U.S. Government's implementation of the GHSA has been the PREDICT project. Launched in 2009, PREDICT had as its primary purpose the identification of the most likely sources of zoonotic disease, and the places and practices more likely to expose people to pathogens that can jump the species barrier. The members of the PREDICT consortium used biological and behavioral surveillance and predictive modeling to identify and understand the viruses and bacteria and their animal hosts, human populations and their behaviors, and other factors most associated with spillover events. While an important part of USAID's strategy under the GHSA, PREDICT has represented less than 20 percent of the Agency's overall investments in global health security.

USAID's 10-year, $200 million investment in PREDICT has provided a foundational understanding of the risk presented by the spillover of zoonotic diseases into humans, and positioned the Agency to make a careful technical shift to building national capacity to deal with this challenge. The Agency's new STOP Spillover project will leverage the data collected and knowledge gained by PREDICT to develop interventions to reduce the risk of the transmission of dangerous pathogens passing from animals to people, including strains of influenza, Ebola, Lassa fever, Marburg, Nipah, and coronaviruses. These viruses from wildlife have caused repeated outbreaks over the past few decades, and most lack specific, proven treatments and vaccines.

USAID designed STOP Spillover by using a co-creation process with a broad range of stakeholders to ensure the project will focus on the investments that reduce most effectively the risk of the transmission of viruses that pose the greatest threat to U.S. national security and global health security. STOP Spillover will focus on strengthening national capacity in a limited number of targeted countries to develop, test, and implement interventions to reduce the risk of the spillover, amplification, and spread of zoonotic pathogens in animal and human populations. This new project will complement other USAID investments in addressing zoonotic diseases, including in disease-surveillance; laboratories; preparedness for, and response to, outbreaks; reducing the prevalence of zoonotic diseases in livestock through partnerships with governments and the private sector; and the training of health workers

USAID intends to award the STOP Spillover project by the end of September 2020, through a competitive process, as PREDICT sunsets as scheduled. USAID is associating STOP Spillover with our New Partnerships Initiative, and welcomes interest from local and locally established partners, who will be critical to ensuring our investments are appropriate, effective, and sustainable. STOP Spillover will be a complement to continuing, life-saving work to prevent maternal and child deaths; control the HIV/AIDS epidemic under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief; eliminate malaria under the President's Malaria Initiative; and helping promote health care that is accountable, affordable, accessible, and reliable. To learn more or apply visit the STOP Spillover project.