Putting theory into practice: Wildlife health in conservation

Infectious and noninfectious diseases are being recognized by conservation biologists as an increasing challenge to the conservation of wildlife. Tbe amplified role of diseases as a factor limiting species' survival can be tr aced to anthropogenic changes on a global scale that have direct and indire ct influences on the health of wildlife species. These changes include huma n population growth, habitat fragmentation and degradation, the isolation o f populations of species, and an increased proximity of humans (and their d omestic animals) to wildlife. Further, some conservation projects have caus ed more barm than good by unwittingly introducing diseases to wildlife popu lations, whereas others have failed to meet their objectives because they d id not take disease factors into consideration. Conservation biologists nee d to move quickly past the decades-old debate on the relative importance of wildlife health to conservation and begin using all the tools available to ensure the effectiveness of their efforts. We briefly review the literatur e on wildlife diseases, place wildlife health in the context of global chan ges affecting wild animal populations, and offer concrete suggestions for w ays to integrate wildlife health sciences into conservation, such as includ ing health assessment or monitoring programs and research on interspecies d isease transmission in field biology projects, training wildlife profession als in the design and implementation of wildlife studies that incorporate h ealth components, and encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration. Our goal is to raise awareness that conservation biologists working in disciplines ranging from field biology to policy making have an important role to play in facilitating a transition toward a new conservation paradigm that includ es wildlife health. This paradigm shaft will take an academic understanding of the importance of wildlife disease and turn it into practical actions t hat will help conserve wildlife more effectively.