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Wildlife disease surveillance
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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.
Wildlife Expert Group (WEG) veterinary co-leads
Samantha Holland (BSc BVMS MVetSci PhD MRCVS) has been the WEG veterinary lead since November 2023. She co-leads the DEFRA funded diseases of wildlife scanning surveillance scheme (DoWS) in APHA with Jenny Cantlay. Sam has previously worked in APHA as a field based veterinary investigator, a veterinary advisor in exotic notifiable disease, and most recently as the Veterinary Head of Exotics and Welfare. She has a master’s degree in conservation medicine and volunteers for both Cetacean Stranding Investigations Programme and British Divers Marine Life Rescue.
Jenny Cantlay (BVMS MVetSci MRCVS) has been the WEG veterinary lead since January 2024. Jenny has a master’s degree in conservation medicine, conducted doctoral research in avian ecology and most recently worked at University of Surrey on the One Health European Joint Programme (OHEJP) as their Communications Officer.
Better understanding of wildlife diseases is essential for improving animal health, human health and ecosystem health under a One Health approach. Interactions between wildlife, domestic animals and humans in varied environments can influence disease dynamics and transmission among different species. Some diseases occurring in wildlife species pose not only animal health and welfare issues, but also potential public health risks for those infectious agents that can cross from wildlife to humans - known as zoonotic diseases.
The WEG works collaboratively to gather, analyse, and share information on wild animal health surveillance. Potential threats in a wide range of wildlife species are covered, across mammals (except cetaceans), birds, reptiles, and amphibians.
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 Health 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
APHA Animal Disease Surveillance Reports
- Bat rabies dashboard
- APHA Veterinary Record monthly disease surveillance report.
- Quarterly GB Wildlife Disease Surveillance and Emerging Threats reports
Recent Interesting Cases
- Morbillivirus encephalitis in a Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus)
- Usutu virus infection in garden birds - update
- Proliferative leg lesions in finches
- Fatal phaeohyphomycosis in British amphibians
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.