With regard to countermeasures to prevent damage to farm crop by wild animals, e.g. deer and boar, usage of them as meat has been promoted. No hygiene control is applied for them on their feed and health, and therefore they have risk of contamination with a variety of pathogens, such as Hepatitis E virus and Trichinella spp.. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan takes various measures to ensure the food safety of game meat - development and implementation of the Guidelines on Hygiene Management for Game Meat, measures to prevent it from contamination with radioactive substances and application of hygiene management along with HACCP to game meat processors.

Game meat, called as a French name, gibier in Japan, is recently becoming popular in the country. While researches on hazards for food safety are conducted and guidelines and facilities were prepared, risk assessments have not been much applied yet. This paper described available risk analysis and assessment frameworks for food safety as well as disease incursion and pandemic response, and discussed how they can be applied to gibier.

Codex Alimentarius Commission food safety risk assessment framework was the most applicable, but attention should be paid on gibier value chains and cultures on hunting and consumption behaviors. Communication with medical practitioners on the risk may be important and additional conduct of OIE framework consequence assessment for human cases would be beneficial.

In addition to food safety risk assessment, animal health risk assessment for the spread of wildlife disease to livestock population, and also pandemic risk assessment may be necessary. Moreover, environmental risks from over hunting and bullets, and economic risks for the actors along the value chains were found to be relevant.

While coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is mainly a pandemic prevalent in humans, the alterations in the social environment caused by the infection have also affected domestic animals. Exploratory and epidemiological investigations have revealed several findings. Particularly, in the COVID-19 pandemic areas, animal owners tended to stay home and chose telework, resulting in additional time with their animals. Moreover, concern about the animals getting infected have reduced their possibilities of going outdoors. A major concern was the apprehension of finding a suitable source of care for the animals when their owners were infected with COVID-19. Therefore, the impact of COVID-19 should be studied from multiple perspectives. However, the infection has also complicated the field investigations, forcing us to redefine our research methodologies.

Shelter medicine is an emerging veterinary medicine which involves animal shelters. It is originally defined as herd medicine for companion animals. The goal of shelter medicine is to not only improve animal welfare for homeless animals in the community, but also to improve public health through safe and secure adoption of animals from animal shelters, to reduce the number of homeless animals in the community, and to protect human-animal bonds. The reasons animals enter shelters include owner relinquishments, overpopulation, and animal abuse cases. These cases, such as animal hoardings by breeders and caregivers, are increasing in number and becoming problematic. Natural disasters such as floods and typhoons also create situations in which shelters are necessary for affected animals. Management of animals during disasters is important not only to save animals, but also to save human lives.

The recent pandemic of COVID-19 is affecting humans as well as animals. Pets that are owned by COVID-19 positive patients have to be safely managed, and shelter medicine plays a key role in such care. Shelter medicine can be effectively employed in providing appropriate information on handling COVID-19 exposed pets and ensuring a safe environment for both animals and personnel. Shelter medicine is a comprehensive veterinary medicine that deals with many aspects of animal problems in the community. The needs of this new discipline are expanding and should be established in Japan for animal welfare and public health. Shelter medicine is an emerging veterinary medicine which involves animal shelters. It is originally defined as herd medicine for companion animals. The goal of shelter medicine is to not only improve animal welfare for homeless animals in the community, but also to improve public health through safe and secure adoption of animals from animal shelters, to reduce the number of homeless animals in the community, and to protect human-animal bonds. The reasons animals enter shelters include owner relinquishments, overpopulation, and animal abuse cases. These cases, such as animal hoardings by breeders and caregivers, are increasing in number and becoming problematic. Natural disasters such as floods and typhoons also create situations in which shelters are necessary for affected animals. Management of animals during disasters is important not only to save animals, but also to save human lives.

The recent pandemic of COVID-19 is affecting humans as well as animals. Pets that are owned by COVID-19 positive patients have to be safely managed, and shelter medicine plays a key role in such care. Shelter medicine can be effectively employed in providing appropriate information on handling COVID-19 exposed pets and ensuring a safe environment for both animals and personnel. Shelter medicine is a comprehensive veterinary medicine that deals with many aspects of animal problems in the community. The needs of this new discipline are expanding and should be established in Japan for animal welfare and public health.

Bat (Order Chiroptera) is thought to be a natural reservoir of SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, which is currently a problem all over the world. Bat is also known as natural hosts for other important infectious disease agensts including Ebola virus and Nipah virus, and epidemiological studies on bats and researches on bat-specific viral tolerance systems are underway worldwide. This review describes that the pathogens detected in bats, the biological characteristics of bats, and where they can be seen. In addition, I explain that the epidemiological study on bats in the Philippines, which is a joint research in microbiology, epidemiology, and ecology.

チョーク病は，セイヨウミツバチ（Apis mellifera）の幼虫における真菌感染症であり，我が国では届出伝染病に指定されている。病因であるAscosphaera apis（A. apis）は蜜蜂の生活圏内に常在し，極めて高い耐乾性を有する。我が国では本病の治療・予防のために承認されている動物用医薬品はなく，採蜜期に使用可能な消毒法も限られている。これらのことから，本病の防除のためには発生に関与する要因を把握して対策を行い，巣箱内のA. apisの数を低く保つことが重要である。蜜蜂飼育者は暑熱ストレス回避および十分な飼料源となる植物を確保する目的で，夏に本州から北海道へ蜜蜂を転飼させているが，疫学的に本病の多くは夏の北海道で摘発される。実験的にも低温感作と発症に関連が認められており，転飼を含む蜂群の低温環境への曝露は本病の発生リスク要因であると考えられる。A. apisの同定には形態観察法が有用である。しかしながら，形態だけではその他のAscosphaera属真菌との鑑別がしばしば困難なことがあり，分子生物学的解析を併用することが望ましい。本病を含む蜜蜂の感染症の対策構築を阻む要素は数多く存在しており，我が国の養蜂振興および家畜衛生の向上という観点から，それに資する疫学的研究の推進が望まれる。

2018年に我が国において26年ぶりとなるCSFが発生し，野生イノシシと豚飼養農場で感染が拡大した。CSFが発生した際には，法律に基づき発生農場の飼養豚が全頭殺処分されるため，その流行は養豚産業に大きな被害を与えることになる。そこで，本研究では2018年の初発事例から2019年9月1日までの感染状況に基づき，野生イノシシの感染拡大が同心円状に起こると仮定した感染拡大シミュレーションにより，豚飼養農場でのCSF感染を推測し，日本におけるCSFの流行に伴う経済的損失を推定した。推定された被害額としては，野生イノシシ初発事例からの感染範囲が半径500kmに達した場合，行政の負担となる殺処分手当金や人件費の被害は計751億円，発生農場での肥育豚の生産が停止することによる生産額の減少は1,402億円に達した。本研究では2019年10月末から開始された飼養豚へのワクチン接種の影響を考慮していないため，推定された金額は過大評価となっている。疾病流行中においては入手可能なデータが限られており，また，将来の対策の追加などを考慮できないため，結果の信頼性に一定の制約が生じる。しかし，疾病の流行が続く中で，重要な政策決定に先立ち，こうした研究結果を検討材料として提供することの意義は大きいと考えられる。本研究の方法や結果は，今後，流行期間中に感染症の拡大予測や費用推定を行う際に活用することができるだろう。

塩化ベンザルコニウム（BC）は，医療現場，食品加工施設，畜産および産業で広く使用されている。本研究では，我々の研究室に保管されていたリステリアモノサイトゲネス（Lm）株のBCに対する耐性をクリーニングテストで試験した。その結果，219株のうちの3株が10µg/mlのBCを含むプレートで増殖した。このことから，日本にもBC耐性のLm株が存在することが確認された。

After the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) was announced by WHO on 30 January, the number of daily cases in Japan continued to increase and reached over 150 on 24 February. On 25 February, The Cluster Management Task Force (CMTF) was established under the Novel Coronavirus Expert Meeting of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Their mission was to 1) identify contacted persons by interviewing infected patients, 2) find infection cluster events, 3) identify risk factors causing cluster events, 4) announcing these factors to reduce cluster events. Professor Hiroshi Nishiura, an expert of theoretical epidemiology in Japan, took the lead in CMTF and provided evidence of strong heterogeneity of the number of secondary infections from a person infected with SARS-CoV2. This evidence supported the strategy of CMTF; suppressing epidemic by reducing the number of cluster events but not by drastic countermeasures such as city lockdown. In addition, CMTF found out that the three primary factors are the risk of causing cluster events. The three factors are closed spaces, crowded places, and close-contact settings, and thereafter, called “Three Cs” and announced as a slogan to change people’s activity.