| The IUCN Wildlife Health Specialist Group is a collaborative
multidisciplinary network supporting and promoting the health of wildlife
and wildlife management as core components of ecosystem and biodiversity
conservation.
NEWS& ANNOUNCEMENTS
Issue 52 of Species (July-December 2010)
Species 52
U.S. Addressing White-Nose Syndrome in Bats
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a national plan to address White-nose syndrome. WNS has been confirmed in 11 states and recently in Canada since its discovery in 2007. It has been responsible for significant bat declines. Please read the full report here.
IUCN Amazing Species:
IUCN Amazing Species
Last year's IUCN Species of the Day proved a huge success in bringing attention to threatened species. This year, IUCN will be featuring weekly profiles under the new name "Amazing Species". We encourage WHSG members to submit nominations to WHSG@EcoHealthAlliance.org. Please include the profile listing information and a high-resolution photograph (with permission granted to use the photograph on the site) of your species with your nomination.
WHSG member and South Asia Regional Coordinator Pradeep Malik (right) works with a colleague to capture and release a tiger that escaped from the Ranthambore tiger reserve in Aug. 2010 and managed through human habitation for three months before finally settling in the bird sanctuary at Keoladev National Park (KNP) in Bharatpur, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The tiger was released on 23 February 2011 in the Sariska Tiger Reserve and has been doing well.
Recent Conferences:
1st International One Health Congress
Victoria, Australia -- February 14th through 16th, 2011
To learn more please visit: http://www.onehealth2011.com
OIE Global Conference on Wildlife, Animal Health and Biodiversity - Preparing for the Future
Over 400 participants from more than 100 countries attended the OIE Global Conference on Wildlife “Animal Health and Biodiversity – Preparing for the Future” in Paris, France from February 23rd to 25th, 2011 at the Maison de la Chimie.
Organised by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), in collaboration with FAO and WHO, this solution-focused conference addressed both benefits and challenges related to coordinated management approaches to the health risks at the wildlife/domestic animal and human ecosystems interface. The OIE will release recommendations stemming from the conference, along with an official publication with chapters from conference speakers.
Conference presentations can be found here.
FAQs on Anthrax for Wildlife Managers
Please
click here for PDF.
Asian Zoo and Wildlife Medicine and Wildlife
Medicine Announcement
The 2nd Symposium of the Asian Zoo and Wildlife Medicine and the 1st
Workshop on the Asian Zoo and Wildlife Pathology (AZWMP 2006) will be
held in Bangkok, Thailand, October 26-29, 2006. For more information,
please visit the web site: http://www.vet.chula.ac.th/azwmp2006/
SSC 2009–2012 quadrennium debate on priorities for IUCN
There is an ongoing debate in IUCN seeking inputs from the IUCN family
and as you are part of that I would appreciate your comments. If you have
any concise inputs on these questions please send to Richard Kock at rkock@rvc.ac.uk to feed into the process.
The questions put out are:
1) What are the key issues and challenges facing
species conservation today that must be addressed by SSC?
2) What do you envision may change for the 2009–2012
time frame and why?
For information please see co-chair’s current thoughts and if you
want to influence this output please respond.
1) What are the key issues and challenges facing
species conservation today that must be addressed by SSC?
a) Issue: Species conservation is seen as someone
else’s problem (usually someone with a PhD as they should know what
to do!).
Challenge: Make conservation of species relevant to people
showing that the connection between human welfare and species is too important
to leave to governments and experts. It is the action of every human being
every day that will make the difference, whether they directly use resources
or have an indirect impact. This is achievable but the message is lost
in the interference . . .
b) Issue: Conservation appears to be dropping
lower on government and donor agendas by the year.
Challenge: To articulate the relevance of conservation
and demonstrate what needs to be done to build awareness and capacity
in support of individual action. Make the donor community realise it is
not money that is the solution but how it is spent.
c) Issue: Conservationists are a by product
of rich communities, ego driven, focus on charismatic species and function
in a vacuum without considering the big picture.
Challenge: To encourage a more pragmatic approach to
conservation with good science but less ideological dominance from the
academic/western community and more involvement of conservation practitioners
and field managers with better representation of ideas from all cultures
and communities in conservation dialogue and action.
d) Issue: Conservation is focused on the past
and on recording change with increasing accuracy.
Challenge: Shift the proportional effort from information
to remedial action.
2) What do you envision may change for the 2009-2012
time frame and why?
a) At a political level there will be the 2010 targets. These will need
to be revisited and greater emphasis put on the process of change rather
than the promise. As mentioned above “Governments, IUCN etc have
promised..”, but governments and agencies can only facilitate change
and more usually mess it up or high jack it for some other agenda or are
driven by hidden forces (corporate).
b) IUCN is caught up in the tug of war and might eventually be ripped
apart unless a common understanding on what is important in conservation
is negotiated across cultures, religions, governments and the corporate
sector. The new common vision will have more obvious relevance to the
average man and woman because if it does not we have a bleak future.
c) SSC will be a globally representative body with a respected and rewarded
professional core and specialist groups and their members will be paid
consultants working to a common agenda on identified and critical issues.
If this does not happen IUCN SSC will be less relevant then than it is
now.
Co-chair IUCN VSG
New IUCN/WCS book available:
News Release (October 12, 2005)
Experts from East and Southern Africa have some grass roots ideas for
tackling the immense challenges Africa faces at the interface between
wildlife, domestic animal and human health--and they hope the West is
listening..... Please
click here for more information on the new AHEAD book.. To download
this book (6.5 MB), please click here
Second Announcement:
The First Scientific Meeting of the Asian Zoo & Wildlife Medicine
2005: Collaboration on Conservation of Medicine for Zoo and Wildlife in
Asia, will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, October 28-30, 2005. For updated
information, please
click here (Word) or here
(Web).
For WHSG members:
Your comments and input are welcome on the draft VSG agenda for the upcoming
IUCN SSC Steering Committee meeting. Please
click here for
the document. All comments are welcome and should be directed to Dr. Richard Kock.
The World
Organization for Animal Health (OIE) Working Group
for Wildlife Diseases continually monitors infectious diseases in
wild animals globally in order to keep OIE Member Countries informed of
new developments. The Group met at the OIE headquarters in Paris from
14 to 16 February 2005 to report on the occurrence of wildlife diseases
in the world during 2004. For more information, please
click here.
The new "One
World, One Health" website is now on-line.
Health experts from around the world met on September 29, 2004 for a symposium
focused on the current and potential movements of diseases among human,
domestic animal, and wildlife populations organized by the Wildlife Conservation
Society and hosted by The Rockefeller University. Using
case studies on Ebola, Avian Influenza, and Chronic Wasting Disease as
examples, the assembled expert panelists delineated priorities for an
international, interdisciplinary approach for combating threats to the
health of life on Earth. The product—called the “Manhattan
Principles” by the WCS organizers of the “One World, One Health”
event—focuses on 12 recommendations for establishing a more holistic
approach to preventing epidemic/epizootic disease and for maintaining
ecosystem integrity for the benefit of humans, their domesticated animals,
and the foundational biodiversity that supports us all.
Representatives from the World Health Organization; the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the United
States Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center; the United States
Department of Agriculture; the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre;
the Laboratoire Nationale de Sante Publique of Brazzaville, Republic of
Congo; the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law; and the Wildlife Conservation
Society were among the many participants.
Grantsmanship workshop: Please
click here for information
on a possible grantsmanship workshop to be scheduled in conjunction with
the next WDA Africa and Middle East meeting.
Request for information: Dan
Rubenstein is interested in viruses, such as EEV and WNV, infecting free-ranging
zebra. Please contact Dan Rubenstein directly at dir@mpala.org
with any examples of recorded mortality or illnesses.
The IUCN Species Survival Commission 2000-2004
Quadrennial Report - For the IUCN
VSG section of the Quadrennial Report, please click
here (PDF).
"Beyond Zoonoses: One World
- One Health"- This one-day
workshop on The Threat of Emerging Diseases to Human Security and
Conservation, and the Implications for Public Policy was held on
November 15, 2004 in Bangkok, Thailand, just prior to the IUCN World Conservation
Congress. Hosted by the Thai Ministry of Public Health, the workshop mapped
out the links between animal health, conservation and human security,
and identified creative approaches to protecting the health of poeple,
animals, and ecosystems. For the meeting notes, please click for the PDF
or Word versions.
The workshop was featured in the Bangkok
Post (PDF).
A shorter version of the workshop was presented at the IUCN World Conservation
Congress Global Synthesis Workshop, Health, Poverty and Conservation--Responding
to the challenge of human well-being stream. Please click
here (PDF) for the agenda. "Addressing
the linkages between conservation, human and animal health, and security"
was adopted as one of the 3rd IUCN World Conservation Congress Resolutions
and Recommendations. For French version, please click
here.
LEAD - FAO Electronic
Conference: Wildlife-Livestock Systems: Cohabitation or Competition?-
For information
on the 2nd LEAD - FAO conference on issues at the wildlife/livestock interface
beginning October 25, please click
here. Although the discussions will be primarily in French, the second
section moderated by Alexandre Caron will be translated into English.
Now available - "IUCN
SSC African Elephant Specialist Group Guidelines for the IN SITU Translocation
of the African Elephant for Conservation Purposes" (Ed. Holly T.
Dublin and Leo S. Niskanen).
The IUCN VSG was part of this initiative from its
inception. Please use this resource for decisions on any aspect of elephant
translocation. Although it is specific to Africa and relates to in situ
conservation, it contains useful information for any elephant transport
in general. PDF versions of the guidelines are available in English
(774KB), French (834
KB) and Portugese
(824 KB). Hard copies and CD versions can be ordered through the website:
www.iucn.org/afesg.
New FACTSHEET on Feline Immunodeficiency
Virus (FIV) in lions - Click
here (152 KB) for the latest factsheet.
New! Orca Necropsy Manual - Written
by Dr. Stephen A. Raverty and Dr. Joseph K. Gaydos, the Killer Whale Necropsy
and Disease Testing Protocol is available here
(485 KB)
AHEAD Website- The
Animal Health for the Environment And Development
(AHEAD) website has just been launched. This new initiative, introduced
during a 2-day forum at the IUCN World Parks Congress in Durban last year,
focuses on issues at the wildlife/livestock/human interface. Click
here to view the new site!
FAO Avian Influenza Technical Consultation-
The Animal
Production and Health Division of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization
has extensive information on the latest occurence of Avian Influenza.
The Technical
Consultation section has information on control strategies and recommendations.
GIC Field Veterinary Technician Program
- Gilman International Conservation has
developed a 1-year pilot project to provide a veterinary technician to
assist biologists and veterinarians in the field. This technician, trained
in field techniques, can also train other technicians and field personel
in sample collection and handling and basic veterinary procedures. Click
here for more information on the program.
Avian Influenza -
For more information on Avian Influenza, the USGS
has released a Wildlife
Health Bulletin and the Wildlife Conservation Society has put together
Avian Influenza Guidelines
Relative to the Outbreak in Asia 2004.
Ebola
- Written by several VSG members, the latest update on
Ebola is available.
If you have News or Announcements you would like posted here, please
email them to: whsg@ecohealthalliance.org |
