Disease and Health in Free-Ranging and Captive Wildlife: Second Edition

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Wildlife".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 March 2025 | Viewed by 99

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
College of Veterinary Medicine and Bio-Safety Research Institute, Jeonbuk National University, Iksan 54596, Republic of Korea
Interests: epidemiology; infectious diseases; microbiome; conservation medicine; cancers in wildlife; diagnostic methods; next-generation sequencing; veterinary science; zoonotic diseases; free-ranging wildlife; captive wildlife
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Guest Editor
College of Veterinary Medicine & Institute of Veterinary Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, Republic of Korea
Interests: cancers in wildlife; epidemiology; infectious diseases; microbiome; veterinary science; zoonotic diseases; free-ranging wildlife; captive wildlife
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Wildlife is declining globally at an astonishing rate, in terms of both diversity and numbers. To conserve endangered species and species diversity, many species of wild animals are maintained as captive and/or free-ranging animals. While the pros and cons of keeping wildlife this way are still controversial, much focus has been placed on animal welfare through behavioral observations. The need for improved and increased knowledge about the health and disease states of both free-ranging and captive wildlife species is greater than ever.

Considering the success of our previous Special Issue, we are pleased to launch “Disease and Health in Free-Ranging and Captive Wildlife: Second Edition”. We welcome a range of research types, including case reports on health and disease in free-ranging and captive wildlife; studies documenting disease, including infectious agents, nutritional disorders, toxicologic conditions, and neoplasia; as well as baseline health, microbiome, and clinicopathologic reference range studies. Manuscripts on zoonoses involving wildlife and on the chemical immobilization of wild animals are also welcome. Manuscripts dealing with surveys and case reports may be published provided that they contain significant new information or have significance for a better understanding of health and disease in wild populations.

Thus, the aim of this Special Issue is to improve the current knowledge of disease and health in free-ranging and captive wildlife.

Prof. Dr. Ho-Seong Cho
Prof. Dr. Yeonsu Oh
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • infectious diseases
  • wildlife
  • surveillance
  • animal health
  • disease surveillance
  • disease monitoring
  • diagnostic techniques
  • zoonoses
  • microbiome

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 986 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Fibropapillomatosis in Roe Deer (Capreolus capreolus) Confirms High Content of Heavy Metals
by Klára Matějka Košinová, Jan Cukor, Vlastimil Skoták, Rostislav Linda, Zdeněk Vacek, Karel Bukovjan and Tomáš Kušta
Animals 2024, 14(19), 2847; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14192847 - 3 Oct 2024
Abstract
In recent decades, there has been an increase in European wild ungulate populations, often associated with a decline in health and spread of disease. This is true for the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), the most common European cervid, with populations apparently [...] Read more.
In recent decades, there has been an increase in European wild ungulate populations, often associated with a decline in health and spread of disease. This is true for the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), the most common European cervid, with populations apparently affected by fibropapillomatosis, an increasingly common cancer. To date, however, there has been little research into this disease, thus many interactions remain unclear and descriptions of tumour composition are poorly validated. The main aim of the present study was to evaluate the presence and concentration of toxic heavy metals in roe deer skin tumours. Our results confirmed the presence of virtually all the metals tested for, i.e., Pb, Hg, Cd, As, Cr, Mn, Al, Co, Cu, Ni, Se, Zn, and Fe, with the highest average concentrations found for Cr (0.99 mg/kg−1 ± 2.23 SD), Cd (0.03 mg/kg−1 ± 0.03 SD), and Hg (0.02 mg/kg−1 ± 0.02 SD), exceeding FAO limits for meat from slaughtered animals. We also observed a significant positive relationship between heavy metal concentration and age, especially for Pb, As, Hg, Mn, Se, Al, Zn, and Ni. Our findings provide a strong baseline for further research on the impact of fibropapillomatosis, not only on the welfare and health status of game but also on the final consumer of venison, which in many respects is regarded as a high-quality, ecological, and renewable wild resource. While deer with this disease are not considered qualitatively or medically defective, they could represent a potential reservoir of substances toxic to humans and could affect substance levels in adjacent tissues or the animal as a whole. Full article
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