The natural ecology of Ebola virus infection remains enigmatic. No clear reservoir species has been confirmed but there is evidence of infection in a wide spectrum of mammals, including humans, non-human primates, domestic and wild ungulates and a variety of bat species, both frugivorous and insectivorous. Humans and most other species examined appear to be spillover hosts and suffer disease. Bats are the exception and are tolerant to infection in some laboratory studies. Some surveys show a low prevalence of antibodies against Zaire Ebola virus (ZEBOV) strains in bats during human outbreaks and inter-epidemic periods, and this order of mammals is considered to be the likely reservoir for the virus. Other putative sources include insects but this hypothesis is unproven in the field or laboratory. Moreover, some potential sources, such as aquatic species, have yet to be investigated. There are a number of environmental, human behavioural and ecological risk factors proposed with respect to spillover and spread. In the West African outbreak, which was unprecedented in scale and geographic spread, the source of the spillover remains unproven, although an association exists between the proposed index case and a colony of insectivorous bats. In all but a few Ebola virus disease events, spillover has only been superficially investigated and this was also the case in the West African epidemic. The authors suggest that, to address risks at the human-animal-environmental interface, using a One Health approach, more effort is needed to investigate spillover factors at the time of a ZEBOV epidemic, in addition to conducting inter-epidemic surveys in peridomestic environments. The true prevalence of ZEBOV infection in any species of bats remains unknown. Large-scale, expensive, non-randomised surveys, with low sampling numbers per species, are unlikely to provide evidence for Ebola virus reservoirs or to improve our epidemiological understanding.

Vector-borne diseases of importance to human and domestic animal health are listed and the increasing emergence of syndromes, new epidemiological cycles and distributions are highlighted. These diseases involve a multitude of vectors and hosts, frequently for the same pathogen, and involve natural enzootic cycles, wild reservoirs and secondary epidemiological cycles, sometimes affecting humans and domestic animals. On occasions the main reservoir is in the domestic environment. Drivers for secondary cycles are mainly related to human impacts and activities and therefore, for purposes of prevention and control, the focus needs to be on the socioecology of the diseases. Technical and therapeutical solutions exist, and for control there needs to be a clear understanding of the main vertebrate hosts or reservoirs and the main vectors. The targets of interventions are usually the vector and/or secondary epidemiological cycles and, in the case of humans and domestic animals, the spillover or incidental hosts are treated. More attention needs to be given to the importance of the political economy in relation to vector-borne diseases, as many key drivers arise from globalisation, climate change and changes in structural ecologies. Attention to reducing the risk of emergence of new infection cycles through better management of the human-animal-environment interface is urgently needed.

Peste des petits ruminant (PPR) is endemic in many Asian countries with expansion of the range in recent years including across China during 2013-2014 (OIE, 2014). Till the end of 2014, no cases of PPR virus (PPRV) were officially reported to the Office Internationale des Epizooties (OIE) from Kazakhstan. This study describes for the first time clinicopathological, epidemiological and genetic characterization of PPRV in 3 farm level outbreaks reported for the first time in Zhambyl region (oblast), southern Kazakhstan. Phylogenetic analysis based on partial N gene sequence data confirms the lineage IV PPRV circulation, similar to the virus that recently circulated in China. The isolated viruses are 99.5-99.7% identical to the PPRV isolated in 2014 from Heilongjiang Province in China and therefore providing evidence of transboundary spread of PPRV. There is a risk of further maintenance of virus in young stock despite vaccination of adult sheep and goats, along livestock trade and pastoral routes, threatening both small livestock and endangered susceptible wildlife populations throughout Kazakhstan.

The global political economy is facing extreme challenges against a backdrop of large-scale expansion of human and domestic animal populations and related impacts on the biosphere. Significant global socio-ecological changes have occurred in the period of a single lifetime, driven by increased technology and access to physical and biological resources through open markets and globalization. Current resource consumption rates are not sustainable and ecological tipping points are being reached and one of the indicators of these may be a changing balance between hosts and pathogens. A period of extraordinary progress in reducing infection risk and disease impact on humans and domestic animals in the 20th Century is reversing in the 21st, but not always and not everywhere. Drivers for this shift are discussed in terms of demographics, agroecology, biodiversity decline and loss of resilience in ecosystems, climate change and increasing interconnectedness between species globally. Causality of disease emergence remains highly speculative, but patterns and data are emerging to commend a precautionary approach, while reassessing our global political, social and economic systems.

This paper identifies some of the more important diseases at the wildlife-livestock interface and the role wildlife plays in disease transmission. Domestic livestock, wildlife and humans share many similar pathogens. Pathogens of wild or domestic animal origin that can cause infections in humans are known as zoonotic organisms and the converse are termed as anthroponotic organisms. Seventy-seven percent of livestock pathogens and 91% of domestic carnivore pathogens are known to infect multiple hosts, including wildlife. Understanding this group of pathogens is critical to public health safety, because they infect a wide range of hosts and are most likely to emerge as novel causes of infection in humans and domestic animals. Diseases at the wildlife-livestock interface, particularly those that are zoonotic, must be an area of focus for public health programs and surveillance for emerging infectious diseases. Additionally, understanding wildlife and their role is a vital part of understanding the epidemiology and ecology of diseases. To do this, a multi-faceted approach combining capacity building and training, wildlife disease surveillance, wildlife-livestock interface and disease ecology studies, data and information sharing and outbreak investigation are needed.

Translocation is defined as the human-managed movement of living organisms from one area for free release in another. Throughout the world, increasing numbers of animals are translocated every year. Most of these movements involve native mammals, birds and fish, and are made by private and national wildlife agencies to augment existing populations, usually for sporting purposes. The translocation of endangered species, often to reintroduce them into a part of the historical range from which they have been extirpated, has also become an important conservation technique. The main growth in reintroduction projects over the last decade has involved smaller animals, including amphibians, insects and reptiles. The success of potentially expensive, high-profile wildlife translocation projects depends to a large extent on the care with which wildlife biologists and their veterinary advisers evaluate the suitability of the animals and chosen release site, and on the ability of the translocated animals to colonise the area. The veterinary aspects of reintroduction projects are of extreme importance. There are instances of inadequate disease risk assessment resulting in expensive failures and, worse still, the introduction of destructive pathogens into naïve resident wildlife populations. In this paper, some of the disease risks attending wildlife translocation are described. Risk assessment, involving the examination of founder and recipient populations and their habitats, is now a pre-requisite of managed movements of animals.

The phylogenetic relationships of Hunter's antelope or hirola Beatragus hunteri (Artiodactyla: Alcelaphini), one of the most seriously threatened antelopes in Africa, have been the subject of controversial discussion. A total of 801 base pairs of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene were determined from five alcelaphine species and from two nonalcelaphine bovids. Phylogenetic analysis using parsimony, maximum likelihood, and distance methods identified a single best-supported hypothesis of evolutionary relationships within the Alcelaphini: (i) monophyly of the tribe, (ii) most basal position of the blue wildebeest, (iii) sister-grouping of the Lichtenstein's and Coke's hartebeests, (iv) phylogenetic distinctiveness of the hirola from the topi and the hartebeests. We deduce that the alcelaphine cytochrome b sequences began to diverge from a common mitochondrial ancestor about 5.5 million years ago. In addition, we provide molecular evidence that the impala Aepyceros melampus is not closely related to Alcelaphini.

Re‐introduction science is in its infancy. Early and recent experiences show how success requires a long‐term and dedicated commitment and all attempts can fail too easily, sometimes for veterinary reasons. A suitably qualified and experienced veterinarian's primary role, as part of the team, is to ensure the health and welfare of animals, both those selected for re‐introduction and sympatric species in the recipient area, before, during and after re‐introduction and/or any intervention procedure, whether chemically or physically restrained. Prevention of alien disease introduction to the recipient area is probably the single most important responsibility.

We report surveillance for rinderpest virus in wildlife populations in three major ecosystems of East Africa: Great Rift Valley, Somali and Tsavo from 1994 to 2003. Three hundred and eighty wild animals were sampled for detection of rinderpest virus, antigen or genome and 1133 sampled for antibody in sera from Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania from 20 species. This was done modifying for wildlife the internationally recommended standards for rinderpest investigation and diagnosis in livestock. The animals were selected according to susceptibility and preference given to gregarious species, and populations were selected according to abundance, availability and association with livestock. Rinderpest virus, antigen and/or genome were detected in Kenya; within Tsavo, Nairobi and Meru National Parks. Serological results from 864 animals (of which 65% were buffalo) from the region were selected as unequivocal; showing the temporal and spatial aspects of past epidemics. Recent infection has been only in or peripheral to the Somali ecosystem (in Kenya). Our evidence supports the hypothesis that wildlife is not important in the long-term maintenance of rinderpest and that wildlife are infected sporadically most likely from a cattle source, although this needs to be proven in the Somali ecosystem. Wildlife will continue to be a key to monitoring the remaining virus circulation in Africa.

The wildlife/livestock interface means different things to different people. Impressions vary from images of wild bird contact with intensive pig operations along the avian migration routes of North America to dusty scenes of thirsty and hungry cattle trudging through protected areas of Africa in search of drought-depleted resources. The many facets to the interface, such as health, conservation, environment, culture, and economics, have been issues since livestock became an integral part of the landscape. There are positive and negative aspects to the interface and it has been a source of conflict in many areas, often as a result of misunderstanding and polarisation of opinion between ecocentric and anthropocentric forces in society. To review all aspects of the interface is beyond the scope of this article, and other texts provide useful data (Boyd et al. 1999) for those wishing a more comprehensive view. Attention here is given to those elements relevant to the health of the large-mammal communities and is focused on Africa, where currently there is an urgent need to find solutions to the problems of abject poverty, poor health status for people and animals, and threats to the environment and biodiversity.

Veterinary RecordVolume 152, Issue 5 p. 141-142 Short Communication Listeriosis in a free-ranging colobus monkey (Colobus guereza caudatus) in Kenya N. D. Kock, N. D. Kock Department of Pathology and Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest University Medical School, Medical School Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157 USASearch for more papers by this authorR. A. Kock, R. A. Kock International Wildlife Veterinary Services, 1850 North Main Street, Salinas, CA, 93906 USASearch for more papers by this authorE. Wambua, E. Wambua Kenya Wildlife Service, PO Box 40241 Nairobi, KenyaSearch for more papers by this authorK. Mohan, K. Mohan Faculty of Veterinary ScienceM, University of Zimbabwe, PO Box MP167 Mount Pleasant, Harare, ZimbabweSearch for more papers by this author N. D. Kock, N. D. Kock Department of Pathology and Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest University Medical School, Medical School Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157 USASearch for more papers by this authorR. A. Kock, R. A. Kock International Wildlife Veterinary Services, 1850 North Main Street, Salinas, CA, 93906 USASearch for more papers by this authorE. Wambua, E. Wambua Kenya Wildlife Service, PO Box 40241 Nairobi, KenyaSearch for more papers by this authorK. Mohan, K. Mohan Faculty of Veterinary ScienceM, University of Zimbabwe, PO Box MP167 Mount Pleasant, Harare, ZimbabweSearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 February 2003 https://doi.org/10.1136/vr.152.5.141Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume152, Issue5February 2003Pages 141-142 RelatedInformation

The long-standing conflict between livestock owners and animal health authorities on the one hand, and wildlife conservationists an the other, is largely based on differing attitudes to controlling diseases of livestock which am associated with wildlife. The authors have attempted 19 highlight The fact that these disease problems are frequently bi-directional at the Wildlife/livestock interface. The different categories of diseases involved are presented. A new dimension being faced by veterinary regulatory authorities is the spectre of emerging sylvatic foci of diseases, such as bovine tuberculosis, bovine brucellosis and possibly rinderpest; these diseases threaten to undermine national and international eradication schemes, which have been implemented and executed with significant success, and at great cost Conversely wildlife-based ecotourism world-wide has expanded rapidly over the past decade and is the source of lacking foreign revenue for many developing countries. Traditional subsistence farming is still the largest source of much-needed protein on some, continents and this, together with the growth and hunger of historically disadvantaged communities for land, is forcing enterprises and communities with markedly different objectives and land-use practices to operate effectively in close proximity. Some land-users rely exclusively on wildlife, others on livestock and/or agronomy, while yet others need to combine these activities, The net result may be an expansion or intensification of the interface between wildlife and domestic livestock, which will require innovative control strategies that permit differing types of wildlife/livestock interaction, and that do not threaten the land-use options of neighbours, or the ability of a country to market animals and animal products profitably.

Between August and December 1996, there was an outbreak of a debilitating skin disease attributed to Sarcoptes scabiei infection in mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. All four members of a gorilla group which had been habituated to tourists were clinically affected; the infant male gorilla was most severely affected and died, the juvenile male showed serious manifestations of the disease and the two adult animals showed milder signs. The three older animals recovered after a single intramuscular dose of ivermectin. S scabiei mites were observed on skin scrapings and biopsies taken while the juvenile was immobilised and in postmortem samples taken from the infant. The clinical signs did not recur during the following year, and no other gorilla groups in the park were observed to be clinically affected.

A severe epidemic of rinderpest, affecting mainly wild ruminants, occurred between 1993 and 1997 in East Africa. Buffalo (Syncerus caffer), eland (Taurotragus oryx) and lesser kudu (Tragelaphus imberbis) were highly susceptible. The histopathological changes, notably individual epithelial cell necrosis with syncytia formation, were consistent with an infection with an epitheliotrophic virus. Serology, the polymerase chain reaction, and virus isolation confirmed the diagnosis and provided epidemiological information. The virus was related to a strain which was prevalent in Kenya in the 1960s, of a second lineage (II), and distinct from isolations of rinderpest virus in the region since 1986. The source of the virus was presumed to be infected cattle from the Eastern region of Kenya and Somalia. The pathogenicity of the virus varied during the epidemic. The mortality in buffalo populations was estimated to be up to 80 per cent, and population data suggested that the virus had an adverse effect on a wide range of species. The virus caused only a mild disease in cattle, with minimal mortality. The results confirmed the importance of wildlife as sentinels of the disease, but although wildlife were important in the spread of the virus, they did not appear to act as reservoirs of infection.

An epizootic in free-ranging lesser flamingos (Phoeniconaias minor) in Kenya resulted in more than 18,500 deaths from August through mid-November 1993. Disease was concentrated along the shores of Rift Valley Lakes Bogoria and Nakuru (Kenya) and did not involve any of the other avian or mammalian species frequenting the lakes. Coincidental to the outbreak was a bloom of algae on Lake Bogoria, toxins from which were first suspected to be causative. Discrete necrotic and granulomatous lesions were often noted in spleen and liver, and Mycobacterium avium serovar I was isolated from both organs. Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa also were often recovered in pure culture from liver. Gross and histopathological evaluation of the cases disclosed signs of acute sepsis and also chronic, potentially life-threatening lesions of mycobacteriosis, primarily involving the spleen and liver. Lesions typical for algae toxicosis were not seen in any birds. Deaths were attributed to septicemia, complicated in those affected, by mycobacteriosis.

Veterinary RecordVolume 145, Issue 18 p. 527-528 Short Communication Pathological changes in free-ranging African ungulates during a rinderpest epizootic in Kenya, 1993 to 1997 N. D. Kock DVM, PhD, N. D. Kock DVM, PhD Marine Veterinary Care and Research Centre, 1451 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz, California, 95060 USASearch for more papers by this authorR. A. Kock MA, VetMB,MRCVS, R. A. Kock MA, VetMB,MRCVS Kenya Wildlife Service, PO Box 40241, Nairobi, KenyaSearch for more papers by this authorJ. Wambua BVM, J. Wambua BVM Kenya Wildlife Service, PO Box 40241, Nairobi, KenyaSearch for more papers by this authorJ. Mwanzia BVM, MPH, J. Mwanzia BVM, MPH Kenya Wildlife Service, PO Box 40241, Nairobi, KenyaSearch for more papers by this author N. D. Kock DVM, PhD, N. D. Kock DVM, PhD Marine Veterinary Care and Research Centre, 1451 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz, California, 95060 USASearch for more papers by this authorR. A. Kock MA, VetMB,MRCVS, R. A. Kock MA, VetMB,MRCVS Kenya Wildlife Service, PO Box 40241, Nairobi, KenyaSearch for more papers by this authorJ. Wambua BVM, J. Wambua BVM Kenya Wildlife Service, PO Box 40241, Nairobi, KenyaSearch for more papers by this authorJ. Mwanzia BVM, MPH, J. Mwanzia BVM, MPH Kenya Wildlife Service, PO Box 40241, Nairobi, KenyaSearch for more papers by this author First published: 30 October 1999 https://doi.org/10.1136/vr.145.18.527Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Volume145, Issue18October 1999Pages 527-528 RelatedInformation

Management of the endangered black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis michaeli) in Africa frequently involves translocation. These procedures are not without risk, and protocols must be critically examined. Hematologic analyses can be used to evaluate the effects of translocation on animal health. Hematologic data obtained during routine translocation of free ranging black rhinoceros (n = 74) in Kenya between 1991 and 1995 were examined, and subsets of data from rhinoceros (n = 43) that were translocated to different regions of Kenya were compared. All animals showed an increase in total blood protein. Animals transported for longer periods and to lower altitude zones with higher ambient temperatures and trypanosomiasis developed anemia and showed neutrophilia, lymphopenia (males), and eosinopenia. The changes in packed cell volume (PCV), hemaglobin, and neutrophils were more marked in females, and the PCV drop was more significant in subadults. The red cell changes were most probably pathologic, involving the loss of red cells from circulation through sequestration or hemorrhage. The changes in white cell parameters are consistent with the effect of endogenous corticosteroids as a result of stress. Transport and confinement stress might lead to gastric ulceration with hemorrhage. In many animals, exposure to trypanosomes contributes to anemia.