Eco Health Alliance

Extracted Attributes

• Type

  Non-governmental organization (NGO)

• Mission

  Protecting people, animals, and the environment from emerging infectious diseases; preventing pandemics; promoting conservation

• Location

  U.S.-based

• Leader/CEO

  Peter Daszak

• Focus Areas

  Diseases caused by deforestation, increased human-wildlife interaction, emerging infectious diseases, global wildlife trade, disease threats, One Health philosophy

• Founding Date

  1971

• Former Name (1971-1999)

  Wildlife Preservation Trust International

• Former Name (1999-2010)

  The Wildlife Trust

• Operational Status (as of April 2025)

  Ceased operations

Timeline

• Founded as Wildlife Preservation Trust International by British naturalist Gerald Durrell. (Source: web_search_results, Wikipedia)

  1971

• Name changed to The Wildlife Trust. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1999

• Published the world's first hotspot map of emerging diseases in the journal Nature, showing where pandemics originate. (Source: web_search_results)

  2008

• Name changed to EcoHealth Alliance, reflecting a shift in focus to environmental health from solely conservation. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2010-09-01

• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) renewed EcoHealth's 5-year grant on the risks of bat coronaviruses emerging. (Source: web_search_results)

  2019-07-24

• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) withdrew funding to EcoHealth Alliance due to scrutiny over its ties with the Wuhan Institute of Virology and COVID-19 origin investigations. (Source: summary, Wikipedia)

  2020-04-01

• The NIH's decision to withdraw funding was met with significant criticism, including a joint letter signed by 77 Nobel laureates and 31 scientific societies. (Source: summary, Wikipedia)

  2020-04-30

• The NIH reinstated funding to EcoHealth Alliance as one of 11 institutions partnering in the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) initiative, though all activities funded by the grant remained suspended. (Source: summary, Wikipedia)

  2020-08-01

• Submitted a progress report detailing results of an experiment where laboratory mice lost more weight than expected after being infected with a modified bat coronavirus. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2021-10-01

• The NIH terminated the EcoHealth Alliance grant, citing the organization's inability to provide requested records from its Wuhan partner concerning controversial experiments with modified bat viruses. (Source: summary, Wikipedia)

  2022-01-01

• An audit by the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that NIH did not effectively monitor or take timely action to address compliance problems with EcoHealth Alliance. (Source: summary, Wikipedia)

  2023-01-01

• EcoHealth Alliance denied allegations that it double-billed the NIH and the U.S. Agency for International Development for research conducted in China. (Source: summary, Wikipedia)

  2023-12-01

• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services banned all federal funding for EcoHealth Alliance. (Source: summary, Wikipedia, web_search_results)

  2024-05-01

• EcoHealth Alliance ceased operations, with its leader Peter Daszak establishing a new non-profit initiative. (Source: summary, Wikipedia)

  2025-04-01

EcoHealth Alliance

EcoHealth Alliance (EHA) was a US-based non-governmental organization with a stated mission of protecting people, animals, and the environment from emerging infectious diseases. The nonprofit organization focused on research aimed at preventing pandemics and promoting conservation in hotspot regions worldwide. The EcoHealth Alliance focused on diseases caused by deforestation and increased interaction between humans and wildlife. The organization researched the emergence of diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Nipah virus, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Rift Valley fever, the Ebola virus, and COVID-19. The EcoHealth Alliance also advised the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Health Organization (WHO) on global wildlife trade, threats of disease, and the environmental damage posed by these. Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, EcoHealth's ties with the Wuhan Institute of Virology were put into question in relation to investigations into the origin of COVID-19. Citing these concerns, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) withdrew funding to the organization in April 2020. Significant criticism followed this decision, including a joint letter signed by 77 Nobel laureates and 31 scientific societies. The NIH later reinstated funding to the organization as one of 11 institutions partnering in the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) initiative in August 2020, but all activities funded by the grant remain suspended. In 2022, the NIH terminated the EcoHealth Alliance grant, stating that "EcoHealth Alliance had not been able to hand over lab notebooks and other records from its Wuhan partner that relate to controversial experiments involving modified bat viruses, despite multiple requests." In 2023, an audit by the Office of Inspector General of the United States Department of Health and Human Services found that "NIH did not effectively monitor or take timely action to address" compliance problems with the EcoHealth Alliance. In December 2023, the EcoHealth Alliance denied allegations that it double-billed the NIH and United States Agency for International Development for research in China. In May 2024, the United States Department of Health and Human Services banned all federal funding for the EcoHealth Alliance. As of April 2025, EcoHealth Alliance has ceased operations in favour of another non-profit initiative, also led by Daszak.

Web Search Results

• EcoHealth Alliance - LinkedIn

  ## Overview Building on over 45+ years of groundbreaking science, EcoHealth Alliance is an international environmental health nonprofit dedicated to protecting wildlife and the public from emerging infectious diseases. We work with governments, scientists, and policymakers around the world to make critical changes for pandemic prediction and prevention. Our dedicated scientists conduct field research and develop tools to safeguard the health of the planet, people, and wildlife. ### Website [...] sustainable future, we must address the crises we find ourselves in with a holistic and interdisciplinary approach. EcoHealth Alliance was an early leader and implementer of the One Health philosophy. Through this approach, we have made vital discoveries in conservation medicine and pandemic prevention, from the Amazon to Vietnam. We are proud to work with our international community of One Health partners on critical conservation and public health research initiatives. Our vision is of a [...] EcoHealth Alliance (2y): EcoHealth Alliance’s #OneHealth mission is to protect and preserve the health of humans, animals, and the environment. We have partners and projects in dozens of countries on every continent except Antarctica – get to know us and the people who drive our mission forwards, working tirelessly every day for a healthier and more secure future. [Likes: 71, Comments: 0]; EcoHealth Alliance (7mo): We're grateful for our wonderful colleagues in One Health, both in New York and

• EcoHealth Alliance faces defunding based on conspiracy theory

  The basic science organization threatened now, EcoHealth Alliance, was founded in 1971. Early on, the alliance worked on the connections between wildlife and human health and the environmental changes that were causing a rise in emerging diseases. By the early 2000s its reputation at tracking and predicting viral outbreaks was second to none. It identified the key bird reservoirs of West Nile virus in the U.S. and predicted how it might spread to important conservation sites like the Galapagos [...] In 2008, EcoHealth Alliance published the world’s first ever hotspot map of emerging diseases that showed where pandemics originate: mostly in countries with high wildlife biodiversity, growing human populations, and lots of environmental changes that push people and animals closer together. Published in the journal Nature, it was a seminal report that has been used by governments around the world, as well as by the World Health Organization, to identify where to conduct surveillance and build [...] ## Related: HHS suspends federal funding for EcoHealth Alliance EcoHealth Alliance worked in Australia to assess the risk of Hendra virus, a lethal virus harbored by fruit bats. In Malaysia, the organization showed that a related virus, Nipah virus, emerged from bats into pigs, leading to a severe outbreak in people, because of the intensification of pig farming. Advertisement

• EcoHealth Alliance - Wikipedia

  Founded under the name Wildlife Preservation Trust International in 1971 by British naturalist, author, and television personality, Gerald Durrell, it then became The Wildlife Trust in 1999. In the fall of 2010, the organization changed its name to EcoHealth Alliance. The rebrand reflected a change in the organization's focus, moving solely from a conservation nonprofit, which focused mainly on the captive breeding of endangered species, to an environmental health organization with its [...] Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, EcoHealth Alliance was the subject of controversy and increased scrutiny due to its ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)—which has been at the center of speculation since early 2020 that SARS-CoV-2 may have escaped in a lab incident. Prior to the pandemic, EcoHealth Alliance was the only U.S.-based organization researching coronavirus evolution and transmission in China, where they partnered with the WIV, among others.[better source [...] In October 2021, the EcoHealth Alliance submitted a progress report detailing the results of a past experiment where some laboratory mice lost more weight than expected after being infected with a modified bat coronavirus. The NIH subsequently sent a letter to the congressional House Committee on Energy and Commerce describing this experiment, but did not refer to it as "gain-of-function." Whether such research qualifies as "gain-of-function" is a matter of considerable debate among relevant

• Federal officials suspend funding to EcoHealth Alliance, nonprofit ...

  Peter Hotez, a vaccine researcher at Baylor College of Medicine, adds that “EcoHealth Alliance is one of the few organizations we have to track the emergence of new and dangerous virus pathogens. If they disappear, our national security suffers.” [...] Federal officials today suspended federal funding for the EcoHealth Alliance, possibly dealing a mortal blow to a U.S. research nonprofit that has been under fire since early in the COVID-19 pandemic. The group has been the focus of concerns that SARS-CoV-2 may have emerged from bat virus research funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and conducted by EcoHealth’s collaborators in Wuhan, China. [...] ## EcoHealth’s ups and downs Peter Daszak, the EcoHealth Alliance’s CEO, sounded the alarm about the COVID-19 pandemic early, but he and his organization have been accused of a lack of transparency, conflicts of interest, and downplaying the lab-leak hypothesis (see 2021 Science profile). ### 2019 24 JulyThe National Institutes of Health (NIH) renews EcoHealth’s 5-year grant on risks of bat coronaviruses emerging. ### 2020

• Programs - EcoHealth Alliance

  We protect people, animals, and the environment by championing the “One Health” approach, emphasizing the interconnected nature of human, animal, and environmental health, taking a holistic approach to find solutions to critical public health and conservation issues. Our global portfolio of projects reaches across 5 continents and more than 30 countries. Key programs include ecological restoration, promoting alternatives to deforestation to protect biodiversity; conservation of threatened [...] species and ecosystems; combatting the illegal wildlife trade; biomonitoring and disease detection; and behavioral risk analysis. Our partners include local scientists, universities, government ministries, foreign agencies, and non-governmental organizations. [...] Biosurveillance Deforestation One Health Pandemic Prevention Wildlife Conservation One Health ### What’s the Fever? EcoHealth Alliance’s What’s the Fever, Liberia (WTFL) project is a… Pandemic Prevention ### Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence Zoonotic coronaviruses represent a significant threat to global health, as… Pandemic Prevention ### Analyzing the Potential for Future Bat Coronavirus Emergence in Myanmar, Vietnam, and Laos Deforestation