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Wildlife Disease

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Disease is described as a decrease in performance of normal functions of an individual caused by many factors, which is not limited to infectious agents. Furthermore, wildlife disease is a disease when one of the hosts includes a wildlife species. In many cases, wildlife hosts can act as a reservoir of diseases that spillover into domestic animals, people and other species. Furthermore, there are many relationships that must be considered when discussing wildlife disease, which are represented through the Epidemiological Triad Model[1]. This model describes the relationship between a pathogen, host and the environment. There are many routes to infection of a susceptible host by a pathogen, but when the host becomes infected that host now has the potential to infect other hosts. Whereas, environmental factors affect pathogen persistence and spread through host movement and interactions with other species.[1] An example to apply to the ecological triad is Lyme disease, where changes in environment have changed the distribution of Lyme disease and its vector, the Ixodes tick[2].

Wildlife Disease Management

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The challenges associated with wildlife disease management, some are environmental factors, wildlife is freely moving, and the effects of anthropogenic factors. Anthropogenic factors have driven significant changes in ecosystems and species distribution globally. The changes in ecosystems can be caused by introduction of invasive species, habitat loss and fragmentation, and overall changes in the function of ecosystems[2]. Due to the significant changes in the environment because of humans, there becomes a need for wildlife management, which manages the interactions between domestic animals and humans, and wildlife[3]. Wildlife species are freely moving within different areas, and come into contact with domestic animals, humans, and even invade new areas. These interactions can allow for disease transmission, and disease spillover into new populations. Disease spillover can become of great concern when considering outbreaks, not only in humans but in other wildlife species raising a concern for species preservation.

Detection

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Wildlife disease is detected primarily through surveys, for example taking samples from wildlife populations in an area to determine the prevalence of disease within a population. Prevalence is define as the percentage of a population that is diseased at a particular time[4]. There are limitations to using this to detect disease within wildlife populations, such as all host may not show signs of disease, the sample distribution, and the disease distribution. Diseases in wildlife tend to form patches of disease throughout an entire population, which can affect the prevalence of the disease within a population. Sampling is assumed to be random, but is often opportunistic. Another form of disease detection is through observation of diseased hosts. However if some hosts within a species do not show signs of disease, this can influence the prevalence of disease detection within a wildlife population.

The reservoir of wildlife disease can also be a challenge when considering wildlife disease detection. An example of a challenge identifying the pathogen is the mass mortality event in bald eagles in southeastern United States in 1994[5]. The challenge identifying the causative agent of disease was due to the neurotoxin being isolated from the areas of outbreak, but not when grown in the laboratory until a brominate metabolite was used[5]. The management of wildlife diseases involve many factors, which should are all important to consider when determining the persistence of a pathogen within a population.

Dead limosa harlequin frog showing symptoms of chytridiomycosis

Prevention

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Culling

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Disease outbreaks in wild animals are sometimes controlled by killing infected individuals to prevent transmission to domestic and economically important animals.[6][7] Animal rights advocates argue against culling, as they consider individual wild animals to be intrinsically valuable and believe that they have a right to live.[8]

Vaccination programs

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Oral rabies vaccine in bait

Wild animal suffering, as a result of disease, has been drawn attention to by some authors,[9] who argue that we should alleviate this form of suffering through vaccination programs.[10][11] Such programs are also deemed beneficial for reducing the exposure of humans and domestic animals to disease and for species conservation.[12] The oral rabies vaccine has been used successfully in multiple countries to control the spread of rabies among populations of wild animals and reduce human exposure.[13] Australia, the UK, Spain and New Zealand have all conducted successful vaccination programs to prevent Bovine Tuberculosis, by vaccinating badgers, possums and wild boar.[14] In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been proposed that, in the future, wild animals could be vaccinated against coronaviruses to relieve the suffering of the affected animals, prevent disease transmission and inform future vaccination efforts.[15]

Zoonoses

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Wild animals, domestic animals and humans share a large and increasing number of infectious diseases, known as zoonoses.[16] The continued globalization of society, human population growth, and associated landscape change further increase the interactions between humans and other animals, thereby facilitating additional infectious disease emergence.[17][18] Contemporary diseases of zoonotic origin include SARS, Lyme disease and West Nile virus.[19] Disease emergence and resurgence in populations of wild animals are considered an important topic for conservationists, as these diseases can affect the sustainability of affected populations and the long-term survival of some species.[20] Examples of such diseases include chytridiomycosis in amphibians, chronic wasting disease in deer, white-nose syndrome, in bats, and devil facial tumour disease in Tasmanian devils.[21]

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Epidemiological Triad". GIDEON. Retrieved 2023-10-20.
  2. ^ a b "Disease ecology", Wikipedia, 2023-07-06, retrieved 2023-10-30
  3. ^ "Wildlife management", Wikipedia, 2023-05-20, retrieved 2023-10-30
  4. ^ "Prevalence", Wikipedia, 2023-07-30, retrieved 2023-10-30
  5. ^ a b Breinlinger, Steffen; Phillips, Tabitha J.; Haram, Brigette N.; Mareš, Jan; Martínez Yerena, José A.; Hrouzek, Pavel; Sobotka, Roman; Henderson, W. Matthew; Schmieder, Peter; Williams, Susan M.; Lauderdale, James D.; Wilde, H. Dayton; Gerrin, Wesley; Kust, Andreja; Washington, John W. (2021-03-26). "Hunting the eagle killer: A cyanobacterial neurotoxin causes vacuolar myelinopathy". Science. 371 (6536). doi:10.1126/science.aax9050. ISSN 0036-8075. PMC 8318203. PMID 33766860.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: PMC format (link)
  6. ^ Harrison, Annabel; Newey, Scott; Gilbert, Lucy; Haydon, Daniel T.; Thirgood, Simon (2010). "Culling wildlife hosts to control disease: mountain hares, red grouse and louping ill virus". Journal of Applied Ecology. 47 (4): 926–930. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2664.2010.01834.x. ISSN 1365-2664.
  7. ^ Cowled, Brendan D.; Garner, M. Graeme; Negus, Katherine; Ward, Michael P. (2012-01-16). "Controlling disease outbreaks in wildlife using limited culling: modelling classical swine fever incursions in wild pigs in Australia". Veterinary Research. 43 (1): 3. doi:10.1186/1297-9716-43-3. ISSN 1297-9716. PMC 3311561. PMID 22243996.
  8. ^ James, Will (2014-03-06). "Killing Wildlife: The Pros and Cons of Culling Animals". National Geographic News. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  9. ^ Tomasik, Brian (2015). "The Importance of Wild-Animal Suffering". Relations: Beyond Anthropocentrism. 3 (2): 133–152. doi:10.7358/rela-2015-002-toma.
  10. ^ Anthis, Jacy Reese (2015-12-14). "Wild animals endure illness, injury, and starvation. We should help". Vox. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  11. ^ Faria, Catia; Paez, Eze (2015). "Animals in Need: The Problem of Wild Animal Suffering and Intervention in Nature". Relations: Beyond Anthropocentrism. 3: 7.
  12. ^ Abbott, Rachel C. (2020-02-17). "Wildlife Vaccination - Growing in Feasibility?". Cornell Wildlife Health Lab. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  13. ^ "Oral Rabies Vaccination". Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). 2019-09-23. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
  14. ^ Quellette, Cara (2018-03-03). "The Case for Wild Animal Vaccination". Nature Ethics. Archived from the original on 2020-02-21. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  15. ^ "Helping wild animals through vaccination: could this happen for coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2?". Animal Ethics. 2020-05-12. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  16. ^ Karesh, William B.; Dobson, Andy; Lloyd-Smith, James O.; Lubroth, Juan; Dixon, Matthew A.; Bennett, Malcolm; Aldrich, Stephen; Harrington, Todd; Formenty, Pierre; Loh, Elizabeth H.; Machalaba, Catherine C. (2012-12-01). "Ecology of zoonoses: natural and unnatural histories". The Lancet. 380 (9857): 1936–1945. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61678-X. ISSN 0140-6736. PMC 7138068. PMID 23200502.
  17. ^ Patz, Jonathan A.; Daszak, Peter; Tabor, Gary M.; Aguirre, A. Alonso; Pearl, Mary; Epstein, Jon; Wolfe, Nathan D.; Kilpatrick, A. Marm; Foufopoulos, Johannes; Molyneux, David; Bradley, David J. (July 2004). "Unhealthy Landscapes: Policy Recommendations on Land Use Change and Infectious Disease Emergence". Environmental Health Perspectives. 112 (10): 1092–1098. doi:10.1289/ehp.6877. ISSN 0091-6765. PMC 1247383. PMID 15238283.
  18. ^ Wu, Tong; Perrings, Charles; Kinzig, Ann; Collins, James P.; Minteer, Ben A.; Daszak, Peter (February 2017). "Economic growth, urbanization, globalization, and the risks of emerging infectious diseases in China: A review". Ambio. 46 (1): 18–29. doi:10.1007/s13280-016-0809-2. ISSN 0044-7447. PMC 5226902. PMID 27492678.
  19. ^ Lipkin, W. Ian (2015). "Zoonoses". Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett's Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases: 3554–3558. doi:10.1016/B978-1-4557-4801-3.00322-2. ISBN 9781455748013. PMC 7151852.
  20. ^ Smith, K. F.; Acevedo‐Whitehouse, K.; Pedersen, A. B. (2009). "The role of infectious diseases in biological conservation". Animal Conservation. 12 (1): 1–12. doi:10.1111/j.1469-1795.2008.00228.x. ISSN 1469-1795.
  21. ^ Botzler, Richard G.; Brown, Richard N. (2014). Foundations of Wildlife Diseases. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 378. ISBN 978-0-520-27609-3.