Disease dynamics and severity control of an established environmentally transmitted parasite

Scott Carver; Christina Næsborg-Nielsen; Laura A Pulscher; Kate Mounsey

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2025.0550

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Disease dynamics and severity control of an established environmentally transmitted parasite

Journal article

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Disease dynamics and severity control of an established environmentally transmitted parasite

Scott Carver, Christina Næsborg-Nielsen, Laura A Pulscher and Kate Mounsey

Biology Letters, Vol.21(12), pp.1-8

2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0550

PMID: 41537813

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Abstract

Sarcoptes scabiei

scabies

parasite

common wombat

Vombatus ursinus

wildlife disease control

pathogen management

Bravecto

environmental transmission

For many wildlife impacted by invasive pathogens, demand for management that curbs impacts can exist long after emergence, yet there are few examples where management is demonstrated as both efficacious and sustainable. We investigated disease dynamics in a bare-nosed wombat (Vombatus ursinus) population where there is demand for disease management and undertook an intervention to test the capacity to curb the severity of sarcoptic mange (caused by Sarcoptes scabiei) using relatively simple therapeutic delivery methods. Using transect surveys, we observed large numbers of bare-nosed wombats (average 50 per survey) in our survey area (ca 20 hectares), finding wombats were healthy (median body condition 4/5) and had a low and stable apparent prevalence of mange (average 3.3%) over 20 months. We undertook a monthly disease management programme for six months, focused on targeted therapeutic (fluralaner) interventions delivered to free-ranging individuals with signs of sarcoptic mange. Our programme, applicable to other wildlife and wombat-mange situations, successfully reduced disease severity among all wombats surveyed, as well as for individuals who could be followed repeatedly. This empirical study establishes an efficacious, feasible and sustainable method of wildlife disease management in an endemic epidemiological setting, something that is rare in the literature on wildlife disease control.

Details

Title: Disease dynamics and severity control of an established environmentally transmitted parasite
Authors: Scott Carver (Corresponding Author) - University of Georgia
Christina Næsborg-Nielsen - University of Georgia
Laura A Pulscher - Colorado State University
Kate Mounsey - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Health - Biomedicine
Publication details: Biology Letters, Vol.21(12), pp.1-8
Publisher: The Royal Society Publishing
Date published: 2025
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2025.0550
ISSN: 1744-957X
PMID: 41537813
Copyright note: © 2025 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Data Availability: Data supporting the findings of this study are available from figshare (doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.29974063)
Grants: Developing treatment for feasible control of mange disease in wombat populations, LP180101251, Australian Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - ARC
Organisation Unit: School of Health - Biomedicine
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991192342402621
Output Type: Journal article

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