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Impediments to Wildlife Disease Surveillance, Research, and Diagnostics

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Wildlife and Emerging Zoonotic Diseases: The Biology, Circumstances and Consequences of Cross-Species Transmission

Part of the book series: Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology ((CT MICROBIOLOGY,volume 315))

There is a recognized need for increased wildlife disease surveillance and research related to understanding the epidemiology and control of emerging wildlife and zoonotic diseases. Although both passive and active surveillance strategies can and have been effectively used with wildlife, some unique problems are often encountered. These can include limitations related to case acquisition and under-reporting, difficulty in designing sampling strategies that adequately represent the population of interest, the lack of properly validated diagnostic tests, problems related to data interpretation due to missing or inaccurate denominator data, and the lack of an existing wildlife surveillance infrastructure. Many of these same problems are often encountered in field research, which can be further complicated by the complexity and scale of the natural systems in which this work takes place. Although such studies may be difficult, there are numerous examples of success and our understanding of wildlife and wildlife-related zoonotic and emerging disease continues to grow.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, Department of Population Health, The University of Georgia, 30605, Athens, GA, USA

    D. E. Stallknecht

Authors
  1. D. E. Stallknecht
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and Center for Eco-Epidemiolog, Yale University School of Medicine, 60 College St, 208034, 06520-8034, New Haven, CT, USA

    James E. Childs

  2. Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases, Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre, Curtin University of Technology, U1987, 6845, Perth, WA, Australia

    John S. Mackenzie

  3. Virus and Prion Diseases of Livestock Research Unit, National Animal Disease Center USDA, 2300 Dayton Ave Ames, 50010, IA, USA

    Jürgen A. Richt

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© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Stallknecht, D.E. (2007). Impediments to Wildlife Disease Surveillance, Research, and Diagnostics. In: Childs, J.E., Mackenzie, J.S., Richt, J.A. (eds) Wildlife and Emerging Zoonotic Diseases: The Biology, Circumstances and Consequences of Cross-Species Transmission. Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, vol 315. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70962-6_17

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