Principles from livestock health plans have been adapted.

A new model has been developed for assessing and managing the health of wildlife populations, based on established practices in livestock management.

Created by Stuart Patterson, senior lecturer in wild animal health at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), the model provides a formalised health planning approach.

While the majority of work on wildlife health has tended to be carried out through epidemiological studies focused on a single infection in a population, the studies have rarely been converted into the kind of applied surveillance schemes used to manage livestock health.

Dr Patterson explained: “Having worked as a cattle vet, I have seen the advantages of herd health planning. Wildlife health work does not have that uniformity of approach, and I wanted to explore the potential for cross-disciplinary learning.

“Funding is often limited for working on wildlife populations and so a structured approach is important in terms of ensuring that work carried out is focused on population outcomes.”

The research identifies six advantages of livestock herd health plans which could usefully be applied to a wildlife context. These are:

• Being outcome driven
  
• Being structured and repeatable
  
• Incorporating both health and welfare criteria within a multidisciplinary team
  
• An evidence-based approach
  
• Encompassing both population and individual metrics
  
• Offering the opportunity for accreditation schemes.
  

According to the proposed model, these aspects of livestock health plans could be used to help manage the health of wildlife populations and support conservation efforts.

The paper has been published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

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