Policies to control diseases caused by invasive alien species should be extended to cover endangered wild species, ecosystems and their services — not just humans, livestock and cultivated plants.
Of the 100 invasive alien species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as the 'world's worst', one-quarter have environmental impacts that are linked to diseases in wildlife (M. J. Hatcher et al. Front. Ecol. Environ. 10, 186–194; 2012). Identifying and managing this threat calls for coordinated interdisciplinary expertise.
Priorities are to collect baseline information on the distribution and population dynamics of pathogens, hosts and vectors; to determine the relative importance of invasion pathways; and to develop methods for predicting host shifts, pathogen–host dynamics and the evolution of alien pathogens (see also go.nature.com/ux4wpp).
This integrated strategy is geared towards the goals set by the Convention on Biological Diversity for managing invasives.
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Roy, H. Control wildlife pathogens too. Nature 530, 281 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/530281d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/530281d
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