Work

The use of a severity index to analyse impact of bacterial zoonoses on welfare of wildlife populations

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Increasing disease outbreaks and declining biodiversity underscore the need for understanding the impact pathogens have on wildlife populations. To understand how zoonoses impact wild animal welfare, we created a severity index. Using signs of disease information from a bacterial zoonotic disease database, we quantified severity of each sign of disease combined with the number of welfare domains and body systems the pathogen impacts to find the severity index value (SIV) of each unique host-pathogen relationship. We then investigated the effects of host-pathogen richness and conservation status against SIV. We found there to be a strong, negative correlation between increasing pathogen richness and SIV. Species of least concern (LC) were not significantly more likely to have higher SIV than species of conservation concern (CC), but CC species did not have a significant decline of SIV with increasing pathogen richness. This study provides an insight into the relationships between pathogen richness and the risk of pathogen infections to wildlife.

Source: Animal Welfare

DOI: 10.1017/awf.2025.10024

Authors: Kristen Hirst, Samniqueka Halsey

Institution: University of Missouri

Language: English

Topic: Zoonotic diseases and public health

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDGs: Life on land, Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,550