Wildlife 2

Question 1

How do we encounter pathogens carried by wild animals?

Answer 1

1. kill wildlife and eat or trade their body parts
2. capture and trade live wildlife and mix species at markets
3. we encroach upon wilderness areas at increasingly dramatic scales

Question 2

What are human factors for zoonosis emergence?

Answer 2

• global traffic
• deforestation
• climate change
• bush meat/ wet markets
• illegal smuggled meat
• exotic pets
• ecotourism
• grazing of animals in wild/conservation areas

Question 3

Outline increasing human contact (and conflict) with wildlife

Answer 3

• bats and viruses - long coexistence
• interactions bats/humans
• urbanisation and deforestation
• live animal markets (in China, SARS was detected in palm civets) = ideal location for spillover
• social and cultural practices –> consumption of bush meat from wild animals including non-human primates ad bats
• in each of these situations, humans have provided the opportunity for inter-species contacts which would not have otherwise occurred.

Question 4

How much bushmeat is expected to be smuggled to be brought into Europe each week?

Answer 4

5 tonnes/week

Question 5

What is a well-known disease of tasmanian devils?

Answer 5

• devil face tumour disease
• not zoonotic
• tasmanian devils have a very close genetic pool as heavily hunted 100 years ago by humans

Question 6

What has caused amphibians to die off significantly in last decade?

Answer 6

• the fungus Chytridiomycosis
• possibly d/t previous methods of detecting human pregnancy (woman’s urine was injected into frog which would dictate whether or not the frog could lay eggs).

Question 7

What are the challenges of studying wildlife populations?

Answer 7

• wild animals tend to be cryptic
• wild animals often rare
• unknown population sizes
• nocturnal species
• wil animals might bite/sting/hurt you
• access to sites may be difficult
• wild animals hard to catch
• transportation of equipment to and in the field
• some people may not want you to trap animals (saboteurs/ well-meaning public)
• methods for sampling wildlife may not be validated
• multiple permits usually required
• information often required quickly (e.g. in outbreak)
• funding scarce
• expertise scarcer

Question 8

T/F: anthropogenic ecological disruptions are responsible for most emergence and re-emergence of zoonotic dz

Answer 8

True