Monitoring transboundary wildlife diseases in Kyrgyzstan
Project Status: 3 Approved without Funding
Duration in months: 36 months
Objective
No comprehensive epidemiological investigation has been performed until now in Kyrgyzstan, to estimate the wild animals’ fauna and impact of infectious and non-infectious diseases on them. Lack of a systematic monitoring investigation on health of wild animals’ populations in highlands made the situation more complicated.
With increasing the number of livestock in the country and simultaneous reduction of the natural pastures, a progressive increasing of direct and indirect contact between wild and farm animals has been observed. This situation may cause an increase in the level of infectious diseases in the highlands. Infectious diseases may transmit from wild animals to domestic animals and vice versa. Wildlife migration may inhance the spread of some nfectious diseases (such as Peste des Petits Ruminants, foot and mouth disease, rabies, smallpox, brucellosis, scabies, trichophytosis). The epidemiology and ecology of wildlife diseases in Kyrgyzstan, especially their prevention and control are not well understood.
According to the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), infectious diseases such as foot and mouth disease, Peste des Petits Ruminants, sheep pox and rabies cause a big threat to wildlife populations in Central Asia. High incidence of several domestic animal diseases such as brucellosis, pasteurellosis, infectious enterotoxemia and some parasitic diseases (echinococcosis, fascioliasis, dicrocoeliasis, dictyocauliasis et al.) Due to migration and free movement of wild animals, there is a chance for transmission of infectious diseases from neighboring countries to Kyrgyzstan.
The current project will provide an opportunity to understand the impact of wildlife on cross-border migration of pathogens, the mechanisms of infection of wild animals and in the spread of infectious and parasitic diseases.
