The hitchhiker's guide to Australian conservation: A parasitological perspective on fauna translocations

Abstract

Translocation is a widely used conservation tool for reintroducing, introducing or restocking wildlife for conservation purposes. Disease and parasites are often unintended hitchhikers during translocations. Conservation managers have begun considering the health, disease risk and parasite loads of their species post-translocation, but not often during the translocation itself. When parasites and diseases are considered during the translocation, they are often dealt with via medical interventions resulting in the complete eradication of parasites leaving the host vulnerable to new or novel disease or parasite loads, or disrupting specialised host-parasite interactions or disease dynamics. To determine the extent of consideration and intervention of parasites and diseases in the Australian context, we conducted an aggregate scoping review of wildlife conservation translocations resulting in 98 identified translocations of 61 species with most (75%) being translocations of 40 species of mammals. Of the 98 translocations identified, only 40 (41%) described any management actions to monitor the health or disease of the translocation, such as health checks, postmortems or sampling of disease or parasite fauna. Surprisingly, some literature mentioned specific diseases or parasites impacting a population (29% of 90 translocations), but only 16 (16%) undertook intervention to prevent these further spreading. When considering general trends over time, more translocations are considering parasites and disease in their planning, and some management action is usually taken; however, medical intervention remains low. In order to ensure that parasites and diseases are part of conservation thinking, we provide a flowchart for managers that can be implemented into future translocations that consider both the negative consequences of disease and parasites, and the ecological necessity and potential benefits of retaining co-evolved parasites and diseases.

Host, environment, and anthropogenic factors drive landscape dynamics of an environmentally transmitted pathogen: Sarcoptic mange in the bare‐nosed wombat

“…This may have welfare and management implications, such as increased biosecurity measures for BNW translocations (e.g. quarantine, and preventative treatment) to ensure a positive outcome for introduced individuals and the population (Dunlop & Watson, 2022).…”

Reversing the decline of threatened koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) populations in New South Wales: Using genomics to define meaningful conservation goals

“…Artificially imposing additional divisions on populations that are already relatively small and fragmented may only serve to accelerate the erosion of this diversity. Consequently, the use of translocations to promote gene flow between ARKS that represent the same major genetic clusters should be encouraged where possible, with the understanding that precautions must also be taken to reduce the possibility of negative nongenetic effects caused by the introduction of pathogens (Woodford and Rossiter, 1993; Kock et al, 2010; Dalziel et al, 2017) or the modification of existing host-parasite dynamics (Lott et al, 2012; Aiello et al 2014; Lott et al, 2015a; Lott et al, 2015b; Lott et al, 2018; Dunlop and Watson, 2022). The movement of individuals between parapatric genetic clusters should also not be ruled out, although the net genetic effects of translocations between specific populations cannot be predicted without further research.…”

Flea (Insecta: Siphonaptera) Family Diversity

“…Vertebrate hosts can often be aided and conserved by monitoring their fleas [38,63,96,[147][148][149][150][151][152][153][154][155][156]. Even in well-studied areas like Europe where much biodiversity is still undescribed [155], surveys for vertebrates could also collect voucher specimens of fleas and other parasites [156]; an example is the collecting protocol for non-parasitologists of Galbraith et al [157].…”