Editorial – Wildlife diseases: costs and benefits

When we talk about wildlife diseases, what tends to spring to mind are usually diseases such as rabies, avian influenza, West Nile virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or the latest, Middle East respiratory system (MERS) – diseases that originate in wild animals and now threaten people or New Zealand’s agricultural industries.

Seabird surveillance for evidence of past and present infectious agent incursion into New Zealand

Border biosecurity is a real and present concern for New Zealand. Many infectious agents that impact on plant, animal and human health in other parts of the world are not currently found here, yet there is the risk that such agents could be introduced.

Viruses in New Zealand bats

Bats are important supernatural and cultural icons around the world. They are also known to harbour diseases capable of infecting humans. Rabies is probably the most widely known such disease, but bats may have also played host to SARS, ebola virus and other viral hemorrhagic diseases.

Is avian malaria playing a role in native bird declines in New Zealand?

Emerging infectious diseases, defined as disease-causing agents that rapidly increase in geographic range, host range, or prevalence, pose a serious threat to the conservation of global biodiversity.

Investigating the cause of disease in kākāpō

Diseases of endangered wildlife pose critical threats to their survival. However, often very little is known about the causes and even the history of wildlife diseases. This is exactly the situation for critically endangered kākāpō suffering from exudative cloacitis.

Estimating TB transmission rates among possums in the wild

The primary wildlife reservoir of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in New Zealand is the possum, with transmission of infection from possums to livestock regarded as the largest barrier to eradicating TB from livestock.

Could a naturally occurring disease be used to help control rats?

Rather than causing direct harm, many diseases can have more subtle effects on their hosts. In some cases parasites actually cause behavioural changes in their hosts that lead to their increased predation.

The role of multiple wildlife hosts on TB persistence

Mycobacterium bovis, the causative agent of bovine tuberculosis (TB), has a very broad host range, which in New Zealand is dominated by cattle, brushtail possums, red deer, ferrets and feral pigs

Feather loss in Adélie penguins

In the austral summer of 2011–12, an abnormal feather loss condition was observed for the first time at the Cape Bird and Cape Crozier Adélie penguin colonies, affecting approximately 1 in 1000 birds.

Evolution of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus in New Zealand

Since its illegal introduction in 1997, rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) virus has spread throughout New Zealand and greatly reduced rabbit populations in many regions.

Recent relevant publications

Kararehe Kino — Vertebrate Pest Research Issue 26

(PDF File, 2.8 MB)

August 2015
The importance of wildlife diseases goes far beyond the threat to people and their livelihoods, as this issue of Kararehe Kino demonstrates. New Zealand’s native biodiversity is also under significant threat from pathogens.