THE CANADIAN-COOPERATIVE-WILDLIFE-HEALTH-CENTER AND SURVEILLANCE OF WILD-ANIMAL-DISEASES IN CANADA

The Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre (CCWHC) was establishe d in 1992 as an organization among Canada's 4 veterinary colleges, wit h a mandate to apply veterinary medicine to wildlife management and co nservation in Canada. A major function of the CCWHC is nation-wide sur veillance of wild animal diseases. Disease surveillance is conceived a s consisting of 4 different activities: detection, diagnosis, informat ion management, and use of information. In the CCWHC surveillance prog ram, detection of disease is carried out by a wide range of profession al and avocational field personnel, and much effort is expended to sti mulate and support this activity. Diagnosis is done by personnel of pr ovincial and federal veterinary laboratories and the CCWHC. Informatio n management is achieved through a national database of wildlife disea se incidents developed and maintained by the CCWHC. Use of information is enabled through established channels for distribution of informati on derived from the surveillance program to persons responsible for wi ldlife programs and policies, and to the public. There has been a high demand for the services of the CCWHC since its establishment. The CCW HC responds to approximately 2000 requests for information annually, d istributes its newsletter to over 1700 recipients, examines approximat ely 1200 wild animal submissions each year, and has accumulated record s of over 5000 disease incidents in its database. Technical informatio n from the CCWHC has benefited federal, provincial/territorial, and no ngovernment wildlife agencies; endangered species recovery programs; f ederal and provincial veterinary services; and federal and provincial public health programs.