Welcome to the Wildlife Health Specialist Group

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

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@zsl.org 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 VSG 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 techsupport/iucn-vsg