Overcoming the limitations of wildlife disease monitoring

Barroso, Patricia; López-Olvera, Jorge R.; Kiluba wa Kiluba, Théophile; Gortázar, Christian

doi:10.1017/one.2023.16

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 127 publications

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“…This finding is relevant not only for the epidemiology of M. conjunctivae, but also because it opens new approaches to the dynamics of other shared pathogens at the wildlife-livestock interface, including notifiable diseases. This should be considered for integrated monitoring at the wildlife-livestock interface in the NSSN, including not only health surveillance but also population monitoring [79,83].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildlife–Livestock Host Community Maintains Simultaneous Epidemiologic Cycles of Mycoplasma conjunctivae in a Mountain Ecosystem

López-Olvera,

Ramírez,

Martínez-Carrasco

et al. 2024

Veterinary Sciences

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Infectious keratoconjunctivitis (IKC) is an eye disease caused by Mycoplasma conjunctivae that affects domestic and wild caprines, including Iberian ibex (Capra pyrenaica), a medium-sized mountain ungulate. However, its role in IKC dynamics in multi-host communities has been poorly studied. This study assessed M. conjunctivae in Iberian ibex and seasonally sympatric domestic small ruminants in the Natural Space of Sierra Nevada (NSSN), a mountain habitat in southern Spain. From 2015 to 2017, eye swabs were collected from 147 ibexes (46 subadults, 101 adults) and 169 adult domestic small ruminants (101 sheep, 68 goats). Mycoplasma conjunctivae was investigated through real-time qPCR and statistically assessed according to species, sex, age category, year, period, and area. The lppS gene of M. conjunctivae was sequenced and phylogenetically analysed. Mycoplasma conjunctivae was endemic and asymptomatic in the host community of the NSSN. Three genetic clusters were shared by ibex and livestock, and one was identified only in sheep, although each host species could maintain the infection independently. Naïve subadults maintained endemic infection in Iberian ibex, with an epizootic outbreak in 2017 when the infection spread to adults. Wild ungulates are epidemiologically key in maintaining and spreading IKC and other shared diseases among spatially segregated livestock flocks.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildlife–Livestock Host Community Maintains Simultaneous Epidemiologic Cycles of Mycoplasma conjunctivae in a Mountain Ecosystem

López-Olvera,

Ramírez,

Martínez-Carrasco

et al. 2024

Veterinary Sciences

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“…Iberian ibex population assessments based on direct counts would be persistently affected by a systematic underestimation in the Iberian Peninsula. Such underestimation has practical consequences affecting annual hunting quotas for ibex populations (Carvalho et al 2020), population management actions to get accurate Ibex numbers to avoid the impact of ibex overabundance (Perea et al 2015), and population monitoring for wildlife health surveillance (Barroso et al 2023(Barroso et al , 2024. Along the same lines, basic research exploring links between population density and the natural history of ibex populations (e.g., Serrano et al 2011, would also be affected by this inaccuracy.…”

Section: Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Direct counts underestimate mountain ungulate population size

Peña-Carmona,

Escobar-González,

Dobbins

et al. 2024

Preprint

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The topography of mountain habitats limits the accuracy of methods to assess the population size of mountain ungulates. This fact hampers decision-making for monitoring and conservation purposes and thus any attempt to evaluate the precision in known-size populations is more than welcome. In this work, we tested the accuracy of direct counts and distance sampling to assess the size of an Iberian ibex (Capra pyrenaica) flock of known size. We evaluated the influence of observer expertise (beginners and experts) on the detection error of female and male ibexes and whether the training of observers contributes to boosting the accuracy of density estimates. The ibex flock was comprised of 18 individuals (9 males, 8 females, and a male yearling) living in a 17 ha enclosure with natural Mediterranean vegetation in the National Game Reserve of Els Ports de Tortosa i Beseit, northeast Spain. After 27 surveys, experts detected 16% more ibexes than beginners. Male ibexes were ~ 13% easier to detect than females, and experts were more accurate than beginners in sexing. Additionally, the detection error in absolute counts was quite similar among beginners, but different among experts (> 10%). Despite the reduction in detection error over increasing effort scenarios, under-detection was greater than 50% in all events (> 85% for beginners and > 67% for experts). This study suggests the systematic underestimation of direct counts and density estimates of mountain ungulate populations in Mediterranean landscapes and the contribution of expertise to the improvement of the direct observation method. Our results show that wildlife managers assessing mountain ungulate populations for managing purposes should consider completing direct counts with alternative methods to minimize this systematic underestimation. Furthermore, surveys of the impact of infectious diseases on ungulate populations by direct observations may also result in the underestimation of the disease's impact on the host population.

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New insights into biodiversity-disease relationships: the importance of the host community network characterization

Barroso,

Gortázar

2024

Eur J Wildl Res

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Camera-trapping-based social network analysis (SNA) is a valuable tool to characterize communities and identify species with an outstanding role in pathogen maintenance. This study provides new insights into the contentious debate on the effect of biodiversity on disease risk by combining SNA with the assessment of host diversity indicators and pathogen richness in Spain. The apparent species richness detected by camera traps at each study site ranged from 10 to 33 species (mean ± standard error (SE): 20.73 ± 1.94) and their apparent diversity rates (i.e., Shannon index) ranged from 0.57 to 2.55 (mean ± SE: 1.97 ± 0.16). At the community level, vertebrate host diversity had a marginal dilution effect on the disease risk and was negatively correlated to pathogen richness. The exposure to multiple pathogens, as a proxy of disease risk, was negatively associated with apparent host diversity. The disease risk was driven by the interaction of apparent biodiversity with the presence of livestock and with the centrality of the indicator species (i.e., the wild boar). The maximum risk of co-exposure to pathogens was reached when the lowest apparent biodiversity rates coincided with the highest wild boar centrality in the host community or with the presence of livestock, respectively. The highest confluence of pathogens occurred at lower apparent diversity indexes, higher wild boar relative abundances and predominance of agricultural lands. Our results suggest that the diversity-disease relationship is not linear and depends on the environment and host community characteristics, thereby opening avenues for designing new prevention strategies.

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Overcoming the limitations of wildlife disease monitoring

Cited by 6 publications

References 127 publications

Wildlife–Livestock Host Community Maintains Simultaneous Epidemiologic Cycles of Mycoplasma conjunctivae in a Mountain Ecosystem

Wildlife–Livestock Host Community Maintains Simultaneous Epidemiologic Cycles of Mycoplasma conjunctivae in a Mountain Ecosystem

Direct counts underestimate mountain ungulate population size

New insights into biodiversity-disease relationships: the importance of the host community network characterization

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