Operational lessons learned from simulating an elimination response to a transboundary animal disease in wild animals

Transboundary animal disease (TAD) introductions can have myriad economic, ecological, and societal impacts. When TADs are introduced into wild species, rapid and intense control efforts to reduce wild animal host populations are sometimes needed to eliminate the disease and prevent endemicity and spillover to domestic animal populations. Yet, such intensive efforts are non-trivial, and the rarity of TAD introductions means that personnel rarely have direct experience with these types of operations. Thus, explicit assessments of operational challenges for these kinds of efforts can provide direction to build emergency response preparedness capacity. Here, we simulated a TAD control effort in response to initial detection of a hypothetical index case of a TAD in wild pigs (Sus scrofa) (e.g., African swine fever; ASF). We used three removal methods (aerial control, trapping, and an experimental toxic bait). Then, we conducted an after-action assessment to identify operational challenges for rapidly reducing a population of invasive wild pigs within a simulated outbreak zone. We also simulated carcass recoveries of dispatched pigs, similar to what might be conducted during a response to a TAD with carcass-based transmission (e.g., ASF virus). Here, we describe operational challenges identified during our effort, alongside technological development solutions and a priori strategy needs to improve TAD response operation outcomes.