Taming wildlife disease: bridging the gap between science and management

Area of Science:

• Wildlife disease ecology
• Conservation biology
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Wildlife diseases pose threats to biodiversity, human health, and economies.
• Disease ecology offers insights into infectious disease dynamics and management strategies.
• Wildlife disease management (WDM) provides empirical testing grounds for disease ecology theory.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the integration of disease ecology theory into WDM literature.
• To assess the realization of complementarity between WDM and disease ecology theory.
• To identify theoretical concepts underutilized in current WDM practices.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of peer-reviewed WDM articles.
• Analysis of the frequency of disease ecology theory application over time.
• Categorization of theoretical concepts applied in WDM.

Main Results:

• Disease ecology theory application in WDM has increased over 40 years, but only half of recent articles incorporate it.
• Academic authorship did not correlate with higher theory application.
• Density-dependent transmission is commonly applied, while pathogen evolution and biodiversity-disease relationships are less integrated.

Conclusions:

• Theory-based WDM can benefit both researchers and practitioners.
• Further integration of underutilized theoretical concepts can enhance WDM and advance disease ecology.
• Addressing emerging theoretical concepts is crucial for future disease management and ecological understanding.