With growing human populations and changing land use worldwide, it is increasingly important to watch for emerging and re-emerging pathogens in wildlife. Such situational awareness of disease threats is a critical goal for Wildlife Health Program (WHP) staff in New York State. Professionals at the WHP vigilantly scan the landscape for the first signs of disease and maintain a readiness to identify and respond to newly arising threats. When disease is quiet, we proactively plan for outbreak response, ensuring agencies have the necessary equipment and guidance to quickly and efficiently handle events. Our comprehensive network of communication enables us to regularly interact with wildlife health professionals worldwide, ensuring we are well-prepared to address emerging disease events.
Our work focuses on the One Health approach, which recognizes that the health of wildlife, humans, and domestic animals is interconnected. A crucial component of threat readiness to achieve One Health lies in our ability to effectively pinpoint a particular pathogen, parasite, or toxin in a wild species. Not all existing diagnostic tools are useful for detecting diseases in wildlife species, and the rigorous scientific development of new diagnostic assays takes time. For this reason, we continually seek the most effective methods to achieve our diagnostic objectives and increase our ability to detect new threats.
