In recent years, species and ecosystems have been threatened by many anthropogenic factors manifested in local and global declines of populations and species. Although we consider conservation medicine an emerging field, the concept is the result of the long evolution of transdisciplinary thinking within the health and ecological sciences and the better understanding of the complexity within these various fields of knowledge. Conservation medicine was born from the cross fertilization of ideas generated by this new transdisciplinary design. It examines the links among changes in climate, habitat quality, and land use; emergence and re-emergence of infectious agents, parasites and environmental contaminants; and maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem functions as they sustain the health of plant and animal communities including humans. During the past ten years, new tools and institutional initiatives for assessing and monitoring ecological health concerns have emerged: landscape epidemiology, disease ecological modeling and web-based analytics. New types of integrated ecological health assessment are being deployed; these efforts incorporate environmental indicator studies with specific biomedical diagnostic tools. Other innovations include the development of non-invasive physiological and behavioral monitoring techniques; the adaptation of modern molecular biological and biomedical techniques; the design of population level disease monitoring strategies; the creation of ecosystem-based health and sentinel species surveillance approaches; and the adaptation of health monitoring systems for appropriate developing country situations.
New Directions of Conservation Medicine: Applied Cases of Ecological Health addresses these issues with relevant case studies and detailed applied examples.
New Directions of Conservation Medicine challenges the notion that human health is an isolated concern removed from the bounds of ecology and species interactions. Human health, animal health, and ecosystem health are moving closer together and at some point, it will be inconceivable that there was ever a clear division.
"Foreword: Planet Doctors Preface Acknowledgments Contributors Part One: Conservation Medicine: Ecological Health in Practice 1. Conservation Medicine: Ontogeny of an Emerging Discipline A. Alonso Aguirre, Gary M. Tabor, and Richard S. Ostfeld 2. Ecohealth: Connecting Ecology, Health, and Sustainability Bruce A. Wilcox, A. Alonso Aguirre, and Pierre Horwitz 3. One Health, One Medicine Laura H. Kahn, Thomas P. Monath, Bob H. Bokma, E. Paul Gibbs, and A. Alonso Aguirre 4. Biodiversity and Human Health Aaron Bernstein 5. An Ecosystem Service of Biodiversity: The Protection of Human Health Against Infectious Disease Felicia Keesing and Richard S. Ostfeld 6. Parasite Conservation, Conservation Medicine and Ecosystem Health Andres Gomez, Elizabeth S. Nichols, and Susan L. Perkins 7. Stress and Immunosuppression as Factors in the Decline and Extinction of Wildlife Populations: Concepts, Evidence, and Challenges Heribert Hofer and Marion L. East Part Two: Anthropogenic Change and Conservation Medicine 8. Climate Change and Infectious Disease Dynamics Raina K. Plowright, Paul C. Cross, Gary M. Tabor, Emily Almberg, Leslie Bienen, and Peter J. Hudson 9. Wildlife Health in a Changing North: A Model for Global Environmental Change Morten Tryland, Susan Kutz, and Patricia Curry 10. Habitat Fragmentation and Infectious Disease Ecology Gerardo Suzan, Fernando Esponda, Roberto Carrasco-Hernandez, and A. Alonso Aguirre 11. Wildlife Trade and the Spread of Disease Katherine F. Smith, Lisa M. Schloegel, and Gail E. Rosen 12. Bushmeat and Infectious Disease Emergence Matt hew LeBreton, Brian L. Pike, Karen E. Saylors, Joseph Le Doux Diffo, Joseph N. Fair, Anne W. Rimoin, Nancy Ortiz, Cyrille F. Djoko, Ubald Tamoufe, and Nathan D. Wolfe 13. Human Migration, Border Controls, and Infectious Disease Emergence Anne M. Alexander, David C. Finnoff , and Jason F. Shogren Part Three: Emerging Infectious Diseases and Conservation Medicine 14. Are Bats Exceptional Viral Reservoirs? Kevin J. Olival, Jonathan H. Epstein, Lin-Fa Wang, Hume E. Field, and Peter Daszak 15. SARS: A Case Study for Factors Driving Disease Emergence Wolfgang Preiser 16. H5N1 Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza: Breaking the Rules in Disease Emergence Thijs Kuiken and Timm Harder 17. Bartonellosis: An Emerging Disease of Humans, Domestic Animals, and Wildlife Ricardo G. Maggi, Craig A. Harms, and Edward B. Breitschwerdt 18. Brucella ceti and Brucella pinnipedialis Infections in Marine Mammals Jacques Godfroid, Ingebjørg Helena Nymo, Morten Tryland, Axel Cloeckaert, Thierry Jauniaux, Adrian M. Whatmore, Edgardo Moreno, and Geoffrey Foster 19. Infectious Cancers in Wildlife Hamish McCallum and Menna Jones 20. From Protozoan Infection in Monarch Butterflies to Colony Collapse Disorder in Bees: Are Emerging Infectious Diseases Proliferating in the Insect World? Rebecca Bartel and Sonia Altizer 21. Fungal Diseases in Neotropical Forests Disturbed by Humans Julieta Benitez-Malvido 22. Emerging Infectious Diseases in Fisheries and Aquaculture E. Scott Philip Weber III 23. Southern Sea Otters as Sentinels for Land-Sea Pathogens and Pollutants David A. Jessup and Melissa A. Miller Part Four: Ecotoxicology and Conservation Medicine 24. Ecotoxicology: Bridging Wildlife, Humans, and Ecosystems Jeffrey M. Levengood and Val R. Beasley 25. Wildlife Toxicology: Environmental Contaminants and Their National and International Regulation K. Christiana Grim, Anne Fairbrother, and Barnett A. Rattner 26. Marine Biotoxins: Emergence of Harmful Algal Blooms as Health Threats to Marine Wildlife Spencer E. Fire and Frances M. Van Dolah 27. Beluga from the St. Lawrence Estuary: A Case Study of Cancer and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Daniel Martineau Part Five: Place-Based Conservation Medicine 28. Sense and Serendipity: Conservation and Management of Bison in Canada Margo J. Pybus and Todd K. Shury 29. Pathogens, Parks, and People: The Role of Bovine Tuberculosis in South African Conservation Claire Geoghegan 30. Disease Ecology and Conservation of Ungulates, Wild Rabbits, and the Iberian Lynx in the Mediterranean Forest Fernando Martinez, Guillermo Lopez, and Christian Gortazar 31. The Kibale EcoHealth Project: Exploring Connections Among Human Health, Animal Health, and Landscape Dynamics in Western Uganda Tony L. Goldberg, Sarah B. Paige, and Colin A. Chapman 32. Conservation Medicine in Brazil: Case Studies of Ecological Health in Practice Paulo Rogerio Mangini, Rodrigo Silva Pinto Jorge, Marcelo Renan de Deus Santos, Claudia Filoni, Carlos Eduardo da Silva Verona, Alessandra Nava, Maria Fernanda Vianna Marvulo, and Jean Carlos Ramos Silva 33. Linking Conservation of Biodiversity and Culture with Sustainable Health and Wellness: Th e Itzamma Model and Global Implications for Healing Across Cultures Todd J. Pesek, Victor Cal, Kevin Knight, and John Arnason 34. Biological Diversity and Human Health: Using Plants and Traditional Ethnomedical Knowledge to Improve Public Health and Conservation Programs in Micronesia Michael J. Balick, Katherine Herrera, Francisca Sohl, Wayne Law, Roberta A. Lee, and William C. Raynor Part Six: Applied Techniques of Conservation Medicine 35. Human Health in the Biodiversity Hotspots: Applications of Geographic Information System Technology and Implications for Conservation Larry J. Gorenflo 36. Determining When Parasites of Amphibians Are Conservation Threats to their Hosts: Methods and Perspectives Trenton W. J. Garner, Cheryl J. Briggs, Jon Bielby, and Matthew C. Fisher 37. Strategies for Wildlife Disease Surveillance Jonathan M. Sleeman, Christopher J. Brand, and Scott D. Wright 38. Wildlife Health Monitoring Systems in North America: From Sentinel Species to Public Policy Michelle M. Willette, Julia B. Ponder, Dave L. McRuer, and Edward E. Clark, Jr. 39. Epidemiologic Investigation of Infectious Pathogens in Marine Mammals: The Importance of Serum Banks and Statistical Analysis A. Alonso Aguirre, Melinda K. Rostal, B. Zimmerman, and Thomas J. Keefe 40. Sorta Situ : The New Reality of Management Conditions for Wildlife Populations in the Absence of ""Wild"" Spaces Barbara A. Wolfe, Roberto F. Aguilar, A. Alonso Aguirre, Glenn H. Olsen, and Evan S Blumer 41. Modeling Population Viability and Extinction Risk in the Presence of Parasitism Patrick Foley and Janet E. Foley 42. Using Mathematical Models in a Unifi ed Approach to Predicting the Next Emerging Infectious Disease Tiffany L. Bogich, Kevin J. Olival, Parviez R. Hosseini, Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio, Elizabeth Loh, Sebastian Funk, Ilana L. Brito, Jonathan H. Epstein, John S. Brownstein, Damien O. Joly, Marc A. Levy, Kate E. Jones, Stephen S. Morse, A. Alonso Aguirre, William B. Karesh, Jonna A. K. Mazet, and Peter Daszak Index"
Alonso Aguirre is Executive Director of the Smithsonian-Mason Global Conservation Studies Program based at Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, and Associate Professor at the Department of Environmental Science and Policy in George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. He cofounded the emerging discipline of Conservation Medicine and has over 20 years of experience in conservation of biodiversity wildlife medicine and management in over 23 countries. Rick Ostfeld is Senior Scientist and Animal Ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, New York. Peter Daszak is President of EcoHealth Alliance (formerly Wildlife Trust). He is a leader in the field of conservation medicine and a respected disease ecologist.
