Imperial College London
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Professor Matthew Fisher

Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health

Professor of Fungal Disease Epidemiology
 
 
 
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Contact

 

matthew.fisher Website

 
 
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Location

 

1113Sir Michael Uren HubWhite City Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Canessa:2018:10.1111/1365-2664.13089,
author = {Canessa, S and Bozzuto, C and Campbell, Grant EH and Cruickshank, SS and Fisher, MC and Koella, JC and Lötters, S and Martel, A and Pasmans, F and Scheele, BC and Spitzen-van, der Sluijs A and Steinfartz, S and Schmidt, BR},
doi = {10.1111/1365-2664.13089},
journal = {Journal of Applied Ecology},
pages = {1987--1996},
title = {Decision-making for mitigating wildlife diseases: From theory to practice for an emerging fungal pathogen of amphibians},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13089},
volume = {55},
year = {2018}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Conservation science can be most effective in its decision-support role when seeking answers to clearly formulated questions of direct management relevance. Emerging wildlife diseases, a driver of global biodiversity loss, illustrate the challenges of performing this role: in spite of considerable research, successful disease mitigation is uncommon. Decision analysis is increasingly advocated to guide mitigation planning, but its application remains rare. Using an integral projection model, we explored potential mitigation actions for avoiding population declines and the ongoing spatial spread of the fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal). This fungus has recently caused severe amphibian declines in north-western Europe and currently threatens Palearctic salamander diversity. Available evidence suggests that a Bsal outbreak in a fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) population will lead to its rapid extirpation. Treatments such as antifungals or probiotics would need to effectively interrupt transmission (reduce probability of infection by nearly 90%) in order to reduce the risk of host extirpation and successfully eradicate the pathogen. Improving the survival of infected hosts is most likely to be detrimental as it increases the potential for pathogen transmission and spread. Active removal of a large proportion of the host population has some potential to locally eradicate Bsal and interrupt its spread, depending on the presence of Bsal reservoirs and on the host's spatial dynamics, which should therefore represent research priorities. Synthesis and applications. Mitigation of Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans epidemics in susceptible host species is highly challenging, requiring effective interruption of transmission and radical removal of host individuals. More generally, our study illustrates the advantages of framing conservation science directly in the management decision context, rather than adapting to it a posteriori.
AU  - Canessa,S
AU  - Bozzuto,C
AU  - Campbell,Grant EH
AU  - Cruickshank,SS
AU  - Fisher,MC
AU  - Koella,JC
AU  - Lötters,S
AU  - Martel,A
AU  - Pasmans,F
AU  - Scheele,BC
AU  - Spitzen-van,der Sluijs A
AU  - Steinfartz,S
AU  - Schmidt,BR
DO  - 10.1111/1365-2664.13089
EP  - 1996
PY  - 2018///
SN  - 0021-8901
SP  - 1987
TI  - Decision-making for mitigating wildlife diseases: From theory to practice for an emerging fungal pathogen of amphibians
T2  - Journal of Applied Ecology
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13089
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/57325
VL  - 55
ER  -
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