Integrated livestock and wildlife disease surveillance and response supports Saiga conservation and livelihoods in Mongolia
Summary
Integrated livestock and wildlife monitoring, surveillance, and response are essential to guide the implementation of disease control measures to protect biodiversity and livelihoods. Improved wildlife surveillance and analyses of disease outbreaks in Mongolia showed that wildlife were victims of livestock disease spillover, not the source of the outbreaks as had been previously thought. This avoided mass culling of wildlife and moved towards wildlife-friendly disease control efforts. Strategies for both livestock and wildlife are now being designed to control and eradicate Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) virus in Mongolia. The incorporation of wildlife is now recognized as essential in global PPR eradication strategies. With saiga sensitivity to disease epidemics more fully appreciated, increased trade protections through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) were implemented, which will further help safeguard the Mongolian saiga’s survival.
Classifications
Region
Scale of implementation
Ecosystem
Theme
Species Conservation and One Health Interventions
One Health
Challenges
Sustainable development goals
Aichi targets
Sendai Framework
Challenges
This solution addresses challenges to biodiversity conservation of saiga and other wild ungulates, as well as the wild carnivores that prey and rely on these animals as their food source. Improved surveillance and understanding of disease epidemiology leads to more appropriate interventions for disease control which addresses challenges to livestock health, with knock-on benefits to the livelihoods and economic security of the herders whose animals share the steppe environment with wild ungulates.
Beneficiaries
- Herding communities who rely on livestock for their economic stability and livelihoods
- Wild ungulates
- Wild carnivores who rely on wild ungulates for food
- All who rely on the integrity of the Mongolian steppe ecosystem
Building blocks
How do the building blocks interact?
Developing multi-sectoral communication and collaboration networks and capacity building across these sectors from local to national levels are essential components for successful wildlife surveillance for One Health intelligence and implementation of effective solutions in coordination with local communities.
Interaction Gallery
Impacts
In the past, the role of wildlife in livestock disease outbreaks was misunderstood. During Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreaks in 2000, Mongolian gazelle were viewed as reservoirs of the disease and subjected to mass culling. Temporal and spatial analyses supported by international wildlife health experts showed that gazelle were in fact the victims of spillover of the virus from livestock improving veterinary officials' understanding of the epidemiology of FMD. Mass destruction of wildlife was recognized as an ineffective control measure, and conservation-friendly management actions adopted. In 2016, PPR was diagnosed in domestic livestock, spread to wild ungulates, and killed over 80% of Mongolian Saiga. Wildlife surveillance identified that wildlife were victims and not the original source of infection. Instead of culling wildlife, expert advisors, environmental and veterinary sectors coordinated to vaccinate livestock and minimize spread of PPR, saving the critically endangered Mongolian Saiga population, which subsequently rebounded to 8,500 individuals.
The realization of the importance of wildlife and their ecological role in preserving the steppes is a great change in the veterinary sector. Partners are now working to design effective control strategies for both livestock and wildlife to eradicate PPR in Mongolia, and to incorporate wildlife into global PPR eradication strategies.
Pictures
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