The health of endangered species, both in the wild and in captivity, could be seriously impacted by common and emerging pathogens. Animal health experts, conservation biologists, regulatory and trade officials, and natural resource agencies are all faced with implementing risk management strategies in the face of relatively little existing information. Risk analysis is a growing field concentrated on accumulating and organizing existing information in order to prioritize relative risks to support decision-making in the face of uncertainty.
Disease is increasingly recognized as a significant risk factor in conservation programs involving animal movements such as reintroduction or translocation. Disease risk poses threats not only to the species on which programs are focused but also to other species that share the habitat. The concern over disease processes and their impact extends across diverse areas of interest including the fields of conservation biology, wild and zoo conservation management and veterinary medicine as well as to agricultural medicine and human medical fields. However disease risk has proven to be complex and difficult to assess and quantify in the context of a conservation program. The growing recognition that disease issues can profoundly effect the viability of populations and consequently the success or failure of conservation programs has led to diverse efforts by individuals and groups to develop some rational means to 1) assess the risks that disease poses to these programs, 2) develop well reasoned understandings of the factors and issues involved 3) make reasonable decisions based on these assessments, and (40 successfully communicate this information to decision makers.
Risk concerns in moving animals for conservation or wildlife management includes three groups of primary disease issues. This analysis is based upon the recognition that a zero risk tolerance philosophy does no meet the needs for decision making in conservation programs. However, there is not a comprehensive agreed, unified, broadly applicable set of tools such as protocols, models, policies, guidelines to assist assessment of disease risk associated with needed animal movement decisions.
The need for a comprehensive, unified, and broadly applicable set of tools was agreed by all of the more than 80 participants in three workshops in their stated individual goals for the workshops. The need was more completely described during the workshops in terms of disease biology, data analysis and decision making tools, and communicating risk analysis information for action.
A workbook, providing six tools to assist in this decision-making process, has been developed through the effort of a significant number of supporters and people active in conservation activities throughout the world. The people donated their time, their resources and most importantly their thoughts and ideas to this project. These workshops and the completion of this workbook is attributable to both the participants who worked diligently throughout the workshops, their employers who gave them the opportunity to participate and to the institutions that provided direct financial support for the series of three development workshops. The supporting institutions include the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians, Audubon Park and Zoological Garden, the Auckland Zoo, the Henry Doorly Zoo, the New Zealand Department of Conservation, the Lincoln Park Zoological Gardens, the San Diego Zoo, White Oak Conservation Center and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
To obtain a hard copy of this workbook contact the CBSG Office
Click here to download a PDF of the Disease Risk Manual.
Mountain gorilla photo courtesy Martha Robbins
