Applied wildlife epidemiology workshop - isvee2015.org

Applied wildlife epidemiology workshop
8-10th of November, 2015
ISVEE 2015

Dr Brendan Cowled (AusVet Animal Health Services)
Professor Michael Ward (University of Sydney)
Dr Clive McMahon (Sydney Institute of Marine Science)

AusVet Animal Health Services
Kilfeacle

280 Cedar Hills Road,
Milton, NSW 2538
Australia

Email: [email protected]
Phone: +61 420 851 350
Skype: brendan.cowled

Workshop application: Wildlife epi

General information

Workshop title: Applied wildlife epidemiology

Organiser and instructor information:

As our proposal is very hands on we are proposing the workshop have 3 instructors despite the extra
expense involved. Dr Evan Sergeant will be included as a fourth instructor if numbers warrant it.

1. Dr Brendan Cowled (organiser)

Brendan has worked in wildlife management and wildlife epidemiology for more than a decade,
principally on wild pigs but also other species such as kangaroos and koalas. This involved R&D of
wildlife management tools, process modelling of wildlife disease and research into wildlife disease
transmission and epidemiology. He has published in both ecology and veterinary journals.

He graduated in 1997 and worked in clinical veterinary practice before working at the Invasive
species CRC and completing a PhD. After Australian government service as a veterinary
epidemiologist he completed a post doc in veterinary epidemiology and now works at AusVet as a
senior consultant. He is an Australian board certified specialist in veterinary epidemiology and a
fellow (Veterinary Epidemiology) of the Australian & New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists
(ANZCVSc).

2. Professor Michael Ward

Michael is a veterinarian and epidemiologist. He has worked on transboundary and zoonotic
diseases for nearly 30 years, including those with a wildlife component such as West Nile virus, avian
influenza H5N1 and rabies. Currently he leads a research program on risk assessment and simulation
modelling rabies incursions in northern Australia, which involves understanding the ecology of
roaming dogs in indigenous communities.

Michael graduated in 1986 (veterinary science) and worked in government practice initially, before
training in epidemiology at the University of California, Davis. He has held faculty positions at Purdue
University and Texas A&M University veterinary schools. In 2008 he commenced as Chair and
Professor, Veterinary Public Health & Food Safety at the University of Sydney veterinary school. He is
a Fellow (Veterinary Epidemiology) of the ANZCVSc.

3. Dr Clive Marks

I have played a leading role in initiating organizing, conducting and writing up internationally
significant ecological research. My body of work comprises research in a variety of fields but, centres
on population ecology, population demography and epidemiology.

My research has focused on important environmental issues including: 1) the precipitous decrease in
numbers of an apex marine predator – the southern elephant seal, 2) how changes in the marine
environment change migratory behaviour in leatherback turtles, 3) the threat posed by feral animals
in northern Australia to the livestock industry and 4) how best to manage the numbers of macropods
in Tasmania to reduce their impact in the agricultural and forestry sectors.

In all four cases information on survival, fecundity and behaviour through the development of
practical tools like the integrated animals management programs STAR and SPAD, have allowed me
to determine those life-stages driving changes in populations.

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Workshop application: Wildlife epi

Workshop learning outcomes:

Overall aim: To train participants to apply epidemiological skills to wildlife disease issues.

Method: A mixture of lectures and practical sessions will be used. Excellent real data sets (buffalo,
wild pigs or wild dogs will be provided for practical sessions.

Learning outcomes:

1. Population at risk

Understand and apply methods to determine wildlife population size and distribution.

Fundamental to managing or understanding wildlife disease is an understanding of populations at
risk. However, wildlife are generally cryptic and a variety of interesting and useful methods have
been developed to estimate populations at risk. Several important and accessible tools will be
presented and used including: Estimating population size (e.g. mark recapture, transects),
abundance indices (sign, population genetics) and GIS approaches for landscape use and densities.

2. Estimating the amount of disease

Apply methods to measure disease/infection in wildlife.

Assessing the status or amount of disease in wildlife populations is critical to management of wildlife
disease, to undertake risk factor studies or to assess risks. Several methods will be presented
including: Surveillance techniques and challenges, the common measures used and spatial
prevalence surfaces.

3. Empirical risk factors

Determine risk factors (or the ‘drivers’) of infection/disease.

The ability to determine which factors are associated with wildlife disease enhance understanding
and management options. In the last decade information theoretical approaches have been
developed by ecologists and are now being cited tens of thousands of times. The method has real
applications for veterinary epidemiology, but has not yet had wide uptake. This new method will be
presented. Specifically, participants will generate multiple hypotheses about wildlife disease, will
establish empirical models to represent hypotheses (e.g. standard logistic regression models) and
will learn to select the most supported models/hypotheses using information theoretical
approaches.

4. Process modelling of wildlife disease

Understand and apply wildlife process models.

Wildlife can cryptic and very hard to observe in the field. When additional complexity associated
with disease is introduced uncertainty builds on uncertainty. Process modelling can begin to help
address this uncertainty. We will use process modelling to build and test alternative scenarios in a
virtual environment. The exact focus of the sessions will depend on participant’s backgrounds and
desires and will be determined after the participants are known. Initially we propose to introduce
process modelling, assist participants to pose real world questions and apply a model to address the
question.

Desired background

3

Workshop application: Wildlife epi
Computer literacy is assumed and participants should bring a laptop with pre-loaded software (as
listed in joining instructions to be sent to participants). The following are considered essential skills:

- Understanding of epidemiology
- basic GIS (preferably with QGIS but exercises may be compatible with other software as we

will use common data sources)
- basic statistics in R. Other software (e.g. Stata or SAS) may be suitable if that is what you use

but script cannot be provided for these in the course.
For those without the essential skills in R or QGIS, joining notes and exercises will be provided in
advance and a session held on day 1 that may allow you to participate. Complete R scripts will be
provided so that R scripting is less of an issue for less confident R users.
History of the workshop
We have not offered this workshop before and it is being purpose written.

Workshop specifications

We will present the course in English.
We would prefer a post ISVEE course as we are proposing a 3 day course.
Our minimum attendees are 16, our maximum are 30.
We would require the package of accessories (laptop projector, extension cords and adaptors) and a
room structure to allow inter-active laptop workshopping (e.g. 4-5 large tables for participants to sit
at).

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Workshop contents and schedule

Day Time Topic

1 9.00-10.30 Introduction and data

10.30-11.00 Coffee Break

11.00-12.00 Basic skills (e.g. R) and familiarit

12.00-1.00 Lunch

1.00-3.00 Wildlife population size es

3.00-3.30 Coffee Break

3.30-5.00 Practical: Wildlife population si

2 9.00-10.30 Practical: Wildlife population si

10.30-11.00 Coffee Break

11.00-12.00 Measuring disease in wi

12.00-1.00 Lunch

1.00-3.00 Practical: Measuring disease

3.00-3.30 Coffee Break

3.30-5.00 Risk factors and testing hypothese

theory)

3 9.00-10.30 Practical: Risk factors and testin

10.30-11.00 Coffee Break

11.00-12.00 Process modelling of wildlif

12.00-1.00 Lunch

1.00-3.00 Practical: Process modelling of w

3.00-3.30 Coffee Break

3.30-5.00 Practical: Process modelling of w

Conclusions

sets Presenter Format
ty with data sets MW Lecture
stimation
ize estimation BC and all Lecture and practical
ize estimation
ildlife CMc and BC Lecture
in wildlife
es (information All Practical
ng hypotheses All Practical
fe disease
wildlife disease MW and BC Lecture
wildlife disease.
All Practical

BC Lecture

All Practical

MW and CMc Lecture

All Practical

All Practical
BC and MW Lecture