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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Disease dynamics and severity control of an established environmentally transmitted parasite
Biology Letters, Vol.21(12), pp.1-8
2025
Abstract
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 GeorgiaChristina Næsborg-Nielsen - University of GeorgiaLaura A Pulscher - Colorado State UniversityKate 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; 1744-9561
- 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)
- Organisation Unit
- School of Health - Biomedicine
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991192342402621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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