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Monitoring for the Management of Disease Risk in Animal Translocation Programmes

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Abstract

Monitoring is best viewed as a component of some larger programme focused on science or conservation. The value of monitoring is determined by the extent to which it informs the parent process. Animal translocation programmes are typically designed to augment or establish viable animal populations without changing the local community in any detrimental way. Such programmes seek to minimize disease risk to local wild animals, to translocated animals, and in some cases to humans. Disease monitoring can inform translocation decisions by (1) providing information for state-dependent decisions, (2) assessing progress towards programme objectives, and (3) permitting learning in order to make better decisions in the future. Here we discuss specific decisions that can be informed by both pre-release and post-release disease monitoring programmes. We specify state variables and vital rates needed to inform these decisions. We then discuss monitoring data and analytic methods that can be used to estimate these state variables and vital rates. Our discussion is necessarily general, but hopefully provides a basis for tailoring disease monitoring approaches to specific translocation programmes.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the organizing committee of the Health and Disease in Translocated Wild Animals Symposium by the Zoological Society of London (Tony Sainsbury, Katherine Walsh, Ian Carter, John Ewen, and Matt Hartley) for the invitation to prepare this manuscript. We also thank several colleagues for insightful discussions about wildlife disease management and monitoring, including Sarah Converse, Evan Cooch, Joanne Earnhardt, Chris Franson, Robert Gerlach, Bruce Rideout, and Ted Swem. Funding for TEH was provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Laurel, MD, 20708, USA

    James D. Nichols

  2. Alaska Sea Life Center, Seward, AK, USA

    Tuula E. Hollmen

  3. University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK, USA

    Tuula E. Hollmen

  4. Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, U.S. Geological Survey, Auburn, AL, USA

    James B. Grand

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  1. James D. Nichols
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Correspondence to James D. Nichols.

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Nichols, J.D., Hollmen, T.E. & Grand, J.B. Monitoring for the Management of Disease Risk in Animal Translocation Programmes. EcoHealth 14 (Suppl 1), 156–166 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-015-1094-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-015-1094-4

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