Special Issue "Wildlife Disease Threats"
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Wildlife".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 February 2022.
Special Issue Editors
Interests: disease; emergent; re-emergent; surveillance; threat; wildlife; zoonosis
Interests: disease; emergent; re-emergent; surveillance; threat; wildlife; zoonosis
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Emerging Infectious Diseases (EIDs) of free-living wild animals can be associated with the “spill-over” from domestic animals to wildlife populations living in proximity or related directly to human intervention, via host or parasite translocations. Many wildlife species act as EID reservoirs. During the last two decades, there has been a surge in the emergence of infectious diseases, which represents a global threat to human and animal health and to the conservation of global biodiversity. The emergence of such diseases is associated with zoonotic pathogens within a host–parasite continuum between wildlife, domestic animal, and human populations. Disease emergence most frequently results from a change in the ecology of host, pathogen, or both. The expansion of human populations has favored outbreaks of EIDs due to increasing population density, especially in urban areas, and encroachment into wildlife habitat. The recent increased occurrence of emerging diseases transmitted from wild animals to humans has drawn the attention of regulatory agencies and governments, as well as the general public. Surveillance on wildlife emerging and re-emerging diseases is necessary in order to avoid an impact on human and animal health. To control these diseases, veterinary public health is essential, with diagnosis, epidemiological surveillance, and prevention as primary measures.
Prof. María José Cubero Pablo
Dr. Jorge Rivera Gomis
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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Keywords
- disease
- emergent
- host
- re-emergent
- reservoir
- spill-over
- surveillance
- threat
- wildlife
- zoonosis
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
-Title: A Review on cephenemiosis in European Roe deer: emergent myiasis in Spain
-Abstract: Cephenemyia stimulator is a Palearctic species that develops in the nasal cavity and pharynx of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and that is widely spread in the range of distribution of this ungulate in Europe. Since the first citation of C. stimulator in Spain in 2001, a rapid expansion has been observed, first in the north of the country with high prevalences and intensities of infestation that have caused some mortal cases, and lately also in Extremadura and Andalucía, the southernmost populations of European roe deer, suggesting an adaptation of this myiasis to different ecosystems of the Iberian Peninsula. Almost simultaneously, C. stimulator is also expanding its distribution in northern Europe, with first cases reported in Sweden. C. stimulator may thus be an example of a parasite currently displaying distributional changes along its most southern and northern range margin, so it is of the utmost importance to know all the epidemiological and clinical aspects of this myasis, as well as to implement surveillance measures including reliable and non-invasive diagnostic techniques to monitor its expansion and adaptation to different ecosystems and/or hosts and to reduce the negative impact on roe deer populations.
-Authors: Patrocinio Morrondo; Gerardo Pajares; María Sol Arias; Néstor Martínez-Calabuig; Susana Remesar; David García-Dios; Pablo Díaz; Ceferino López; Rosario Panadero*; Pablo Díez-Baños.
*corresponding author.
-Affiliation: INVESAGA Group. Department of Animal Pathology. Faculty of Veterinary. University Santiago de Compostela. 27002 Lugo (Spain).
-Submission Date: 30 September
2. Type of Paper:ArticleTentative Title: Disease ecology of a low-virulence Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae strain in a free-ranging desert bighorn sheep population
Authors: Brianna Johnson(1), Janice Stroud-Settles(2), Annette Roug(3), Jace Taylor (3, 4), Jason Nicholes (3), Kezia Manlove(1)
Affiliations: (1) Utah State University Department of Wildland Resources and Ecology Center; (2) Zion National Park; (3) Utah Division of Wildlife Resources; (4) USFWS
Abstract: Infectious pneumonia associated with the bacterial pathogen Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae is a major impediment to bighorn sheep population recovery throughout western North America, yet there is reason to suspect that the full range of M. ovipneumoniae virulence is not well-understood. Here, we present data from an intensive monitoring project initiated around an M. ovipneumoniae introduction event into the Zion bighorn sheep population in southern Utah. The disease event followed a decidedly different pattern than has been reported elsewhere, with very low mortality burdens and strong signals of spatially structured transmission. At the same time, individual-level immune responses to the strain were muted relative to what has been reported elsewhere. Several mechanisms could explain why M. ovipneumoniae’s disease ecology is different in the Zion herd. First, most work on M. ovipneumoniae has centered on Rocky Mountain bighorns (Ovis canadensis canadensis), while the Zion bighorns are members of a different subspecies (O. c. nelsoni). Second, the particular M. ovipneumoniae strain involved comes from a clade of strains associated with weaker demographic responses in other herds. Third, the particular substructuring of the Zion bighorn herd may make it more resilient to disease invasion. The limited epidemic costs in the Zion bighorn herd underscores a broader point in wildlife disease ecology, that one size may not fit all events. The points of variation identified here may indicate novel pathways for disease management and planning, and we conclude with a discussion of how low-virulence strains might alter priorities and actions in bighorn sheep management.
Submission Date: December 1st, 2021
3.Type of Paper:Review
Tentative Title: Exposure to microparasites in Iberian wild carnivores: a review and meta-analysis
Authors: Javier Millán1,2,3 & Daniel J. Becker4
Affiliations:
1 Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón-IA2 (Universidad de Zaragoza-CITA), Zaragoza, Spain
2 Fundación ARAID, Zaragoza, Spain
3 Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile
4 Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK USA
Abstract:
The Iberian Peninsula hosts a diverse assemblage of 18 carnivores species belonging to seven families. We review the state of the art in the epidemiology of infectious diseases and use a suite of meta-analytic and comparative methods to derive fundamental insights into how sampling effort, pathogen richness, infection prevalence and seroprevalence vary across carnivore taxa and Iberian geography. The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) was the most intensively studied species (71% of studies), whereas the wolf (Canis lupus) and Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) were disproportionally studied in relation to their population size. The Arctoidea were understudied. Mediterranean Spain and Portugal were subject to greater sampling effort, whereas, after adjusting for sampling effort, central Spain showed the higher pathogen richness. Excluding studies analyzing fecal samples, 53 different pathogens have been detected in Iberian carnivores, including 16 viruses, 27 bacteria, and 10 protozoa but no fungi. The most studied pathogens were canine distemper virus (CDV) and carnivore protoparvovirus-1 (CPV-1) among the viruses, Mycobacterium bovis and Leptospira among the bacteria, and Leishmania infantum among the protozoa. Sampling effort and pathogen diversity were generally more similar among closely related carnivore species. Viruses had lower and higher seropositivity in the Mustelinae and the Canidae, respectively. Protozoa seropositivity was greater in both the Mustelinae and the Canidae. CDV exposure was greatest in canids and mustelids, whereas CPV-1 exposure was greatest in the Atlantic, more humid Iberian regions. For CPV-1, the Felidae and the Musteloidea had lower infection prevalence, whereas a subclade of the Mustelidae had a greater prevalence of Leishmania infantum. We observed no relationships between host phylogenetic distance and pathogen sharing, indicating pathogen exchange across carnivore species. We identify important research pitfalls and future directions to improve the study of infectious disease in Iberian wild carnivore communities.