Post-Outbreak Disease Risk Management Strategy for Sand Lizard Reintroductions

The sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) is an endangered native species in England, typically persisting in small, fragmented populations. A conservation translocation (reintroduction) programme has contributed to recovery by establishing new populations and regaining the lost range of the species. The translocation of wild animals has been associated with severe epidemic disease giving rise to extinctions, and therefore, caution is required in the planning of future translocations. In line with International Union for the Conservation of Nature recommendations, a disease risk analysis was conducted on the sand lizard reintroduction programme in 2003. A disease outbreak, associated with the bacterium Serratia marcescens, occurred in a sand lizard colony being prepared for reintroduction in 2004, and S. marcescens had not previously been recorded in reptiles in England. In order to reassess disease risk management methods, efforts were made to establish whether this bacterium was a naturally occurring species in UK sand lizards, and a survey was conducted on 194 free-living, wild sand lizards from a population that had not received reintroduced sand lizards. Cloacal swabs, collected from the free-living sand lizards, were cultured for bacteria, and S. marcescens was recorded at 1.5% prevalence (n = 194). Given this finding, the risk from disease, associated with S. marcescens, in the reintroduction of sand lizards from the captive colony was considered low, and conservation translocation continued. The practical, feasible disease risk management methods, described in this paper, can be utilised to reduce the risks from disease of conservation translocations and safeguard future populations.