Spring Break
South African disease outbreak affects its mammal population
Betsy Cohen
Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: News
11/06/09 - One of the major issues facing South Africa's mammal population is the prevalence of diseases, according to Professor Wouter van Hoven, who spoke yesterday afternoon in the University of Rhode Island's Center for Biological Life Sciences.
The director of the University of Pretoria's Center for Wildlife Management, van Hoven, presented a lecture addressing various diseases that have infected the wildlife of South Africa.
With a background in wildlife nutrition, van Hoven oversees graduate students working with various wild animals in South Africa's Kruger National Park. He said that sick animals are commonly seen in KNP and new diseases are still being found today.
"If you start digging in the guts of African wildlife, you find new diseases," van Hoven said.
While studying a rhino, he found Triplumaria corrugata, a new species of gastro-intestinal protozoan, an organism that causes disease.
Because wildlife and domestic animals are so incorporated into the lives of South Africans, diseases among animals are historically distributed in areas where people settled, van Hoven said.
He classified diseases commonly found in the wildlife in KNP into several categories, such as Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs) and endemic diseases. TADs include Foot and Mouth disease, Theilerioses, Trypanosomosis and Tuberculosis (of animals, not humans). Anthrax was one of the major endemic diseases van Hoven discussed.
In regards to endemic cycles, van Hoven said that buffalo are the only permanently infected reservoir species of wildlife. He said that carrier buffalo shed little disease and that in young buffalo, high levels of antibodies provide extra protection against endemic diseases; however, by 6 months old, they become susceptible.
Diseases do not always visibly present themselves in the wildlife found in KNP, but species known as "sentinel," or indicator species, such as the impala, can be observed to detect for the presence of an endemic disease. Along with his researchers, van Hoven monitors endemics by observing impalas in the national park.
The director of the University of Pretoria's Center for Wildlife Management, van Hoven, presented a lecture addressing various diseases that have infected the wildlife of South Africa.
With a background in wildlife nutrition, van Hoven oversees graduate students working with various wild animals in South Africa's Kruger National Park. He said that sick animals are commonly seen in KNP and new diseases are still being found today.
"If you start digging in the guts of African wildlife, you find new diseases," van Hoven said.
While studying a rhino, he found Triplumaria corrugata, a new species of gastro-intestinal protozoan, an organism that causes disease.
Because wildlife and domestic animals are so incorporated into the lives of South Africans, diseases among animals are historically distributed in areas where people settled, van Hoven said.
He classified diseases commonly found in the wildlife in KNP into several categories, such as Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs) and endemic diseases. TADs include Foot and Mouth disease, Theilerioses, Trypanosomosis and Tuberculosis (of animals, not humans). Anthrax was one of the major endemic diseases van Hoven discussed.
In regards to endemic cycles, van Hoven said that buffalo are the only permanently infected reservoir species of wildlife. He said that carrier buffalo shed little disease and that in young buffalo, high levels of antibodies provide extra protection against endemic diseases; however, by 6 months old, they become susceptible.
Diseases do not always visibly present themselves in the wildlife found in KNP, but species known as "sentinel," or indicator species, such as the impala, can be observed to detect for the presence of an endemic disease. Along with his researchers, van Hoven monitors endemics by observing impalas in the national park.
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