THE IMPORTANCE OF DISEASE IN REINTRODUCTION PROGRAMS

Disease may play an important role in the decline or extinction of sma ll, isolated animal populations. Disease also has thwarted attempts to reintroduce some endangered captive-bred species. Despite this, the i mpacts of disease rarely have been considered in the planning and desi gn of reintroduction programmes. A remnant wild population could be de cimated by a disease cointroduced with reintroduced animals. Alternati vely, diseases that are endemic in wild animal populations could be fa tal for those immunologically naive individuals that are reintroduced. We contend that the planning of reintroduction programmes should incl ude an examination of the potential impacts of disease on extant popul ations and on animals targeted for release. A number of steps are outl ined to reduce disease risk and to minimise the probability of failure of reintroductions because of disease.