The Pan-Canadian Approach to Wildlife Health

Wildlife diseases and their effects are expected to increase with climate change, urbanization, and increased natural resource development (1). Growing demands for cumulative effects management are creating new expectations to measure, monitor, and maintain wildlife population health (2). A new approach is needed to: i) harmonize capacity across Canada; ii) more efficiently use shared platforms, infrastructure, and expertise; and iii) bolster the ability to quickly detect emerging threats while promoting new partnerships to anticipate problems and sustain healthy populations in advance of harm. The current approach to wildlife health problems is often reactive and follows a “disease-by-disease” sequence. As a consequence, problems are rarely addressed in their early stages and response options may be few. There is a need for greater focus on early warning, prevention, and preparedness, which will depend on improved knowledge of risks, better surveillance for early warning, improved coordination, and integrated response capability. In the Spring of 2018, all federal, provincial, and territorial Ministers responsible for biodiversity and conservation approved a new Pan-Canadian Approach to Wildlife Health. The Approach presents a vision for wildlife health to protect the socioeconomic, cultural, and ecological value of healthy wildlife. The Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative has championed this modernization of wildlife health over the past 4 years, working closely with government and non-governmental partners to advocate for an approach to effectively respond to up-and-coming threats to conservation, public health, and economies from climate change, emerging diseases, globalization and changes to organizational capacities