Image 1: Mosquito larval collection in North Kalimantan. 

Improving the skills of health facility staff, extensive fieldwork, awareness raising sessions and the publication of research results are just some of the achievements of a collaborative project finishing in Indonesia later this year. 

Menzies School of Health Research (Menzies) has been working on evaluating zoonotic malaria transmission and agricultural land use in Indonesia, the Zoomal project, since February 2020. 

The 3-year project aims to strengthen surveillance of zoonotic malaria in Indonesia, including evaluating the disease burden, agricultural practices, and mosquito vectors associated with transmission. The Zoomal project has made significant headway in the past 18 months. 

Image 2: Mosquito larvae found in a coconut shell used to collect rubber in North Sumatra. 

Extensive fieldwork and data collection has been taking place at 2 sites - northern Sumatra and North Kalimantan. As part of the collaborative project, 8 Australian investigators have made site visits which resulted in 7 new scientific publications, including in Scientific Reports and Malaria Journal. In addition, 14 staff from local health facilities in Indonesia have been trained as part of the Zoomal project which has partnered Indonesian and Australian researchers. 

Zoomal project coordinator and Menzies Research Fellow Dr Sunny Sanderson said continuing to focus on capacity building was the key to successfully evaluating monkey-to-human transmission of malaria parasites across Indonesia, specifically Plasmodium knowlesi.

Image 3 (right): A Macaque monkey traversing large oil palms in North Sumatra.

“Alongside training opportunities and capacity building, other positive impacts of the project are the wide range of collaborative initiatives between Australia and Indonesia,” Dr Sanderson said. 

“It’s also impressive that more than 50 per cent of the project researchers are female.”

New project collaborations include investigators and staff from Indonesian Government ministries, local institutions, non-government organisations and international development organisations.

A seminar to highlight the project was also held by the Universitas Sumatera Utara’s Faculty of Medicine in September 2022. The seminar was supported by Menzies, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Australian Government’s Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security. The seminar heard from 36 speakers with the majority from the Zoomal Project. There were 184 participants from 40 universities and 11 countries who took part in the seminar. 

“The key objective was to help participants understand the theory and implementation of the One Health approach in preventing, preparing for, and managing zoonotic diseases in Southeast Asia,” said Dr Sanderson.

Image 4 (left): Site visits and fieldwork are underway in North Sumatra and North Kalimantan.

As an investigator for the social science component of the Zoomal Project, Dr Sanderson is evaluating the agricultural and land-use factors associated with zoonotic malaria transmission. This includes assessing how household and community level land use may change due to large-scale agricultural conversion in North Sumatra and North Kalimantan. 

In addition, researchers are exploring the perspective of landowners and stakeholders on risk practices and land use policies to prevent and treat P. knowlesi infection in workers, farmers and local communities.

The Zoomal project sits within the Research for One Health Systems Strengthening Program (ROHSS), which brings together leading Australian researchers and regional counterparts. These experts are working to address issues at the critical interface between people, animals and the environment. ROHSS is a co-investment and partnership between ACIAR and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), through the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security.

Dr Sanderson said the One Health Approach recognises that the health of humans, animals and the environment are all interconnected. 

“It promotes a collaborative, multi-sectoral and transdisciplinary approach to ensure the health of humans, animals and our environment,” she said.

The work of the Zoomal project supports this and builds on previous work by Menzies. It aims to provide improved detection tools for zoonotic malaria. This will assist with more accurate monitoring of progress towards human-only malaria species elimination.

“Our work provides the evidence policymakers need to reduce the impact of this disease in Indonesia,” Dr Sanderson said. 

“We’re looking forward to providing the information they need to ensure sustainable agricultural development and promote malaria control measures to improve the health of local communities and agricultural workers at risk of zoonotic malaria.”

Head to our website to get more updates on our malaria research

Image 5: Dr Ivana Alona and Dr Sunny Sanderson have been working on the Zoomal project.  

Image 6: The One Health Approach recognises that the health of humans, animals and the environment are all interconnected, which is being explored through the Zoomal study.