Emerging infectious diseases in free-ranging wildlife-Australian zoo based wildlife hospitals contribute to national surveillance

PLoS One. 2014 May 1;9(5):e95127. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0095127. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Emerging infectious diseases are increasingly originating from wildlife. Many of these diseases have significant impacts on human health, domestic animal health, and biodiversity. Surveillance is the key to early detection of emerging diseases. A zoo based wildlife disease surveillance program developed in Australia incorporates disease information from free-ranging wildlife into the existing national wildlife health information system. This program uses a collaborative approach and provides a strong model for a disease surveillance program for free-ranging wildlife that enhances the national capacity for early detection of emerging diseases.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Animals, Domestic
  • Animals, Wild
  • Australia / epidemiology
  • Communicable Diseases / veterinary*
  • Communicable Diseases, Emerging / epidemiology*
  • Geography
  • Hospitals, Animal
  • Public Health Surveillance
  • Zoonoses / epidemiology*

Grants and funding

The zoo based wildlife disease surveillance program described in this paper was funded by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture and the Australian Centre of Excellence for Risk Analysis. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.