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How well do YOU know your zoonotic diseases?

Between World Zoonoses Day 2022 (6 July) and One Health Day 2022 (3 November), the One Health Poultry Hub website featured ZOODLE – a word game inspired by the popular New York Times Wordle game. On each of the 87 weekdays between these two international awareness days we encouraged our team and others to pit themselves against our ZOODLE to ‘diagnose’ a zoonotic diseases-related word in six or fewer tries.

Why did we do this?

We wanted to highlight the link between zoonoses and a One Health approach. By joining up the two awareness days with ZOODLE we found what we hope was a fun way of doing this.

The landscape of infectious diseases and the threat they present is changing. It is critical the world finds ways to minimise those threats.

• Some 60% of human infections originate from animals (i.e., are zoonotic in nature).
• More than 70% of all new and emerging infectious diseases affecting people are zoonotic.
• The rapid intensification of livestock production, including poultry production, presents an increasing risk area for zoonotic disease emergence.
• One Health approaches are needed to reduce the risk of zoonotic disease.

When the game was launched, One Health Poultry Hub Director Professor Fiona Tomley said:

“Wordle has proved an infectious bit of fun.  We hope ZOODLE will also be great fun and perhaps a diverting start to people’s days. But behind it lies more serious concern for public health, food security, the environment and animal welfare. We aim to increase public awareness and understanding of the changing landscape of infectious diseases, the threats they present and, importantly, the way forward to minimise those threats.”

ZOODLE focus words

As well as offering the game, we took regular dives into a ZOODLE word to offer information or reflections on how the word relates to zoonoses, One Health or the work of the One Health Poultry Hub. These ZOODLE focus words appeared the day after they featured as a solution in the game.

Check out ZOODLE focus words:

• The ZOODLE word of 2 November was STUDY. Read ‘Let’s resolve to keep up the momentum for One Health’ by Hub Director Professor Fiona Tomley of Royal Veterinary College, UK.
• The ZOODLE word of 26 October was WHOLE. Read ‘Creeping forward with One Health‘ by Dr Syed Abbas of the Institute of Development Studies, UK.
• The ZOODLE word of 19 October was TRADE. Read ‘The impact of zoonoses on trade‘ by Dr Madeleine Clark, Senior Portfolio Manager, Animal Health and One Health at BBSRC.
• The ZOODLE word of 12 October was RISKS. Read ‘The risky business of zoonoses‘ by Dr Daan Vink of the Royal Veterinary College.
• The ZOODLE word of 5 October was FARMS. Read ‘Helping farms become healthier places‘ by Nusrat Irin of Chattogram Veterinary and Animal Sciences University.
• The ZOODLE word of 28 September was AMR. Read ‘Rise in demand for chicken meat is increasing the risk of antimicrobial resistance’ by Dr Rashed Mahmud of Chattogram Veterinary and Animal Sciences University.
• The ZOODLE word of 21 September was E.coli. Read ‘Introducing a a bacteria that is both friend and foe‘ by Dr Ngoc Pham Thi of the National Institute of Veterinary Research, Vietnam.
• The ZOODLE word of 14 September was PEOPLE. Read ‘Community engagement matters for sustainable approaches to health challenges’ by Dr Jessica Mitchell of the University of Leeds.
• The ZOODLE word of 7 September was CAMPY. Read ‘Campylobacter: a foodborne pathogen that can kill’ by Sophie Hedges of the Royal Veterinary College, London.
• The ZOODLE word of 31 August was FOWLS. Read ‘Facts about fowls‘ by Dr Haidaruliman Paleja of Anand Agricultural University.
• The ZOODLE word of 24 August was STOCK. Read ‘Taking stock in changing times‘ by Professor Robyn Alders of Chatham House.
• The ZOODLE word of 17 August was LIVING. Read ‘Balancing risks for better livelihoods’ by Dr Ayako Abata of the Institute of Development Studies, UK.
• The ZOODLE word of 10 August was TRACK. Read ‘Why we track chickens‘ by Dr Hoa Pham of CIRAD.
• The ZOODLE word of 3 August was COVID. Read ‘Politics and ecosystems need rebalancing so no more COVID-19s‘, a blog by Professor Dirk Pfeiffer of City University of Hong Kong.
• The ZOODLE word of 27 July was SHOCK. Read ‘Why disease outbreaks continue to surprise’, a blog by Dr Annie Wilkinson of the Institute of Development Studies, UK.
• The ZOODLE solution of 20 July was MODEL. Read ‘Data crunching for infectious disease strategies‘, a blog by Dr Francesco Pinotti of the University of Oxford
• The ZOODLE solution of 13 July was ROLES. Read ‘Seeking connections and the consequences of what people do’, a blog by Dr Eve Houghton of the Royal Veterinary College, London.
• The ZOODLE solution of 7 July was VIRUS. Read ‘Tiny pathogens with a big impact‘, a blog by Dr Ashley Banyard of the Animal and Plant Health Agency.