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Wildlife disease surveillance
If you have found a mass mortality of wildlife (2 or more dead animals together), nervous disease in wildlife or unusual deaths in wildlife, please contact the WEG veterinary lead or your nearest APHA Veterinary Investigation Centre: VIC Bury St Edmunds, VIC Carmarthen, VIC Penrith, VIC Shrewsbury, VIC Starcross, VIC Thirsk.
Please note: if you suspect a notifiable disease you must contact APHA immediately.
APHA Diseases of Wildlife Scheme (APHA DoWS)
The APHA DoWS has delivered national surveillance for wildlife disease in England and Wales to government since 1998.
The Scheme examines vertebrate wild species for all disease and mortality investigations, including infectious and non-infectious disease. In 2009, surveillance for vertebrate (apart from cetaceans) wildlife disease in GB became the responsibility of the Great Britain Wildlife Disease Surveillance Partnership, under the Chair of the APHA DoWS.
The GB Wildlife Disease Surveillance Partnership involves:
- APHA
- SRUC Veterinary Services
- Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas)
- Forestry Commission England
- Institute of Zoology
- Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT)
- Natural England
- Garden Wildlife Health (GWH) project
Wildlife Expert Group (WEG) veterinary lead
The WEG Veterinary Lead is Cat Man.
Cat has been the WEG Veterinary Lead since Feburary 2022. She leads the Defra-funded wildlife disease scanning surveillance project in APHA.
Cat also chairs the Great Britain Wildlife Disease Surveillance Partnership and is the APHA representative for wildlife disease related matters in both HAIRS (Human Animal Infections and Risk Surveillance) Group and the NNRAF (non-native species risk analysis forum).
APHA Animal Disease Surveillance Reports
- APHA Veterinary Record monthly disease surveillance report.
- Quarterly GB Wildlife Disease Surveillance and Emerging Threats reports
Recent Interesting Cases
- Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) continues for the fourth month (November to February) in wild birds (and poultry)
- Reimerella anatipestifer polyserositis and hepatitis, with enteritis, diagnosed in a mute swan
Disease Information
Information notes and alerts on specific diseases or conditions:
- Causes of mortality in feral wild boar in the Forest of Dean – June 2022
- Rabbit haemorrhagic disease: a re-emerging threat to lagomorphs – August 2020
- Garden Wildlife Health disease fact sheets - 15 October 2019
-
CEFAS notifiable disease fact sheets of fish and shellfish - 15 October 2019
- Avian botulism – a recurring paralytic disease of wild UK waterbirds – September 2019
- 20 years of national wildlife disease surveillance - April 2019
- Wildlife disease surveillance (Article in Vet Times, subscription needed) - April 2019
- Recent changes in infectious diseases in European wildlife (Article in Journal of Wildlife Diseases, subscription needed) - January 2019.