VET Julie / July 2025 The Monthly Magazine of the SOUTH AFRICAN VETERINARY ASSOCIATION Die Maandblad van die SUID-AFRIKAANSE VETERINÊRE VERENIGING Respiratory disorders of backyard poultry – Part 2 of 2: Bacterial, Fungal & Other causes CPD THEME Wildlife nuus•news Access to CPD Articles: https://www.sava.co.za/vetnews-2025/
Dagboek • Diary Ongoing / Online 2025 July 2025 August 2025 SAVETCON: Webinars Info: Corné Engelbrecht, SAVETCON, 071 587 2950, corne@savetcon.co.za / https://app.livestorm.co/svtsos Acupuncture – Certified Mixed Species Course Info: Chi University: https://chiu.edu/courses/cva#aboutsouthafrica@tcvm.com SAVA Johannesburg Branch CPD Events Monthly - please visit the website for more info. Venue: Johannesburg Country Club Info: Vetlink - https://savaevents.co.za/ 55th Annual SASAS Congress 08 -10 July Venue: Protea Hotel, The Ranch Resort, Polokwane Info: https://www.sasascongress.co.za/ Hill’s & MSD Nurses Weekend 26-27 July Venue: Houw Hoek Hotel, Grabouw Info: corne@savetcon.co.za NVCG Bush Break 26-27 July Venue: Nombolo Mdhluli Conference Centre, Skukuza, Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga Info: https://vetlink.co.za/BUSH-BREAK-26-27-JULY-2025/ Western Cape Branch Congress 01-02 August Venue: Protea Hotel, Marriott Stellenbosch & Conf Centre Info: https://vetlink.co.za/western_cape/ 14th International Veterinary Immunology Symposium 11-14 August Venue: Hilton Vienna Park, Austria Info: corne@savetcon.co.za or visit www.ivis2025.org 22nd Annual SASVEPM Congress 20 -22 August Venue: ANEW Resort White River, Mpumalanga, SA Info: https://sasvepm.org/ or conferences@vetlink.co.za September 2025 October 2025 Eastern Cape and Karoo Branch Congress 12-13 September Venue: Radisson Blu Hotel, Port Elizabeth Info: https://vetlink.co.za/eastern_cape_and_karoo_branch/ 5th International Congress on Parasites of Wildlife and 53rd Annual PARSA Conference 14-18 September Venue: Skukuza, Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga Info: corne@savetcon.co.za or visit www.savetcon.co.za Northern Natal and Midlands Branch Congress 11-12 October Venue: Fordoun Hotel and Spa, Midlands Info: https://vetlink.co.za/northern_natal_and_midlands/ The Middle East & Africa Veterinary Congress (MEAVC) 17 -19 October: Pre- and Main Congress Workshops Venue: Jafza One Convention Centre, Dubai Info: www.meavc.com Northern Cape and Free State Branch Congress 18-19 October Venue: To be confirmed (Bloemfontein) Info: conference@savetcon.co.za KwaZulu-Natal Branch Congress 25-26 October Venue: San Lameer Resort, Southbroom Info: www.vetlink.co.za 11th International Sheep Veterinary Congress 27-31 October Venue: Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia Info: https://intsheepvetassoc.org/11th-isvc-2025 10th Annual South African Immunology Society (SAIS) Congress 30 October – 01 November Venue: Garden Court Marine Parade, Durban (KZN) Info: corne@savetcon.co.za or visit www.savetcon.co.za Southern Cape Branch Congress 31 October – 01 November Venue: Oubaai Hotel Golf & Spa, George Info: https://vetlink.co.za/southern-cape-branch/
Vetnuus | July 2025 1 Contents I Inhoud President: Dr Ziyanda Qwalela president@sava.co.za Interim Managing Director: Dr Paul van der Merwe md@sava.co.za Editor VetNews: Ms Andriette van der Merwe vetnews@sava.co.za Accounts / Bookkeeping: Ms Sonja Ludik bookkeeper@sava.co.za/+27 (0)12 346 1150 Secretary: Ms Sonja Ludik sonja@sava.co.za/ +27 (0)12 346 1150 Reception: Ms Hanlie Swart reception@sava.co.za/ +27 (0)12 346 1150 Marketing & Communications: Ms Sonja van Rooyen marketing@sava.co.za/ +27 (0)12 346 1150 Membership Enquiries: Ms Debbie Breeze debbie@sava.co.za/ +27 (0)12 346 1150 Vaccination Booklets: Ms Debbie Breeze debbie@sava.co.za/ +27 (0)12 346 1150 South African Veterinary Foundation: Ms Debbie Breeze savf@sava.co.za/ +27 (0)12 346 1150 Community Veterinary Clinics: Ms Claudia Cloete manager@savacvc.co.za/ +27 (0)63 110 7559 SAVETCON: Ms Corné Engelbrecht corne@savetcon.co.za/ +27 (0)71 587 2950 VetNuus is ‘n vertroulike publikasie van die SAVV en mag nie sonder spesifieke geskrewe toestemming vooraf in die openbaar aangehaal word nie. Die tydskrif word aan lede verskaf met die verstandhouding dat nóg die redaksie, nóg die SAVV of sy ampsdraers enige regsaanspreeklikheid aanvaar ten opsigte van enige stelling, feit, advertensie of aanbeveling in hierdie tydskrif vervat. VetNews is a confidential publication for the members of the SAVA and may not be quoted in public or otherwise without prior specific written permission to do so. This magazine is sent to members with the understanding that neither the editorial board nor the SAVA or its office bearers accept any liability whatsoever with regard to any statement, fact, advertisement or recommendation made in this magazine. VetNews is published by the South African Veterinary Association STREET ADDRESS 47 Gemsbok Avenue, Monument Park, Pretoria, 0181, South Africa POSTAL ADDRESS P O Box 25033, Monument Park Pretoria, 0105, South Africa TELEPHONE +27 (0)12 346-1150 FAX General: +27 (0) 86 683 1839 Accounts: +27 (0) 86 509 2015 WEB www.sava.co.za CHANGE OF ADDRESS Please notify the SAVA by email: debbie@sava.co.za or letter: SAVA, P O Box 25033, Monument Park, Pretoria, 0105, South Africa CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS (Text to a maximum of 80 words) Sonja van Rooyen assistant@sava.co.za +27 (0)12 346 1150 DISPLAY ADVERTISEMENTS Sonja van Rooyen assistant@sava.co.za +27 (0)12 346 1150 DESIGN AND LAYOUT Sonja van Rooyen PRINTED BY Business Print: +27 (0)12 843 7638 VET Diary / Dagboek II Dagboek • Diary Regulars / Gereeld 2 From the President 4 Editor’s notes / Redakteurs notas Articles / Artikels 8 Climate change as a wildlife health threat: a scoping review 16 Managing Wildlife Disease Under Climate Change 20 Toward an integrative molecular approach to wildlife disease 26 The Hidden Dangers Beneath: What Hippo Bites Reveal About Antibiotic Resistance 28 Medicine Supply Crisis for Large Animal Practices Association / Vereniging 30 SAVA Awards 35 SAVA News 40 Legal Mews Vet's Health / Gesondheid 44 Life Coaching Technical / Tegnies 42 Dental Column Marketplace / Markplein 46 Marketplace Jobs / Poste 47 Jobs / Poste 48 Classifieds / Snuffeladvertensies 26 42 28 Click on the image to access Vetnews CPD articles « nuus•news
Vetnews | Julie 2025 2 « BACK TO CONTENTS This is once again a month entered with jubilation following the Comrade’s marathon. I’d like to congratulate all the members of the profession who participated in the event and particularly those who met and exceeded their personal goals for the race this year. A friend once said,“If you see me running, it means something is chasing me!”I guess that dovetails well with this month’s wildlife theme. July is Wildlife Month, and from an epidemiological perspective, one is thus reminded of the role wildlife plays in the perpetuation of diseases such as Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) and HPAI. These have become very important for the South African economy. Being amid a protracted FMD event, biosecurity has rightfully become the "word of the day." The National Biosecurity Summit, held in June 2025, was a defining moment for the agricultural sector, signalling a shift to a proactive approach to disease management as well as collaborative safeguarding of our national herd and food systems. Key recommendations from the summit included legislative strengthening to enable the enforcement of disease control measures, institutional renewal to support vaccine production and rapid diagnostics, and reinforced stakeholder collaboration – all of which are necessary to improve agricultural resilience and enable trade compliance in a fastevolving global environment. We look forward to the forthcoming summit report, which is expected to guide the implementation of these outcomes. In this context, Foot-and-Mouth Disease control is likely to remain a dominant issue. The recently gazetted enhanced animal movement and gathering requirements provide a much-needed regulatory tool required to curb disease spread. These measures include stricter permit controls, improved traceability, and limitations on livestock movement from high-risk areas. Stakeholder awareness and buy-in will be critical in translating these legal instruments into meaningful on-the-ground impact, and veterinarians remain a key player in this process. I implore that, as opportunities become available for us to engage on multistakeholder platforms, let us engage and provide the required technical inputs on this disease. It’s all hands-on deck, as Former President Thabo Mbeki would say. At the same time, the protracted nature of the FMD outbreak is creating complex socio-economic pressures, especially in the KZN Disease Management Area, where farmers and rural communities are finding themselves in dire straits and are bearing the brunt of market access restrictions. These continued restrictions result in illegal movements, which spread the disease into other parts of the country. We thus must develop new models to facilitate safe trade. Talking of animal movement and disease management controls, the SAVA Animal Ethics & Welfare Committee is looking for new members to join its ranks. The SAVA AEWC is a passionate group of vets committed to promoting animal welfare interests within the veterinary and social community. They have played a pivotal role in guiding on welfare issues to both SAVA FEDCO and the sector. Send expressions of interest to president@sava.co.za. On the international front, I will attend both IVOC and WVAC 2025 during this month under the theme “Veterinary Vision 2030: Innovation, Inclusion, Impact.” Key topics include climate-resilient animal health systems, digital transformation in veterinary care, global harmonisation of veterinary standards, and youth leadership in the profession. These discussions are especially relevant as we reposition South Africa’s veterinary sector within a dynamic global context, while nurturing the next generation of veterinarians to ensure continuity. The profession awaits the finalisation of the South African Veterinary Council (SAVC) election process. There has been some discontent expressed by members on various glitches experienced with the voting process. SAVA and the SAVC will continue to engage on the matter to ensure a fair process. There are many important issues to address affecting the profession, and we wish those who will emerge victorious from the election a fruitful tenure. As we go into the 2nd half of the year, I am also looking forward to exciting technical and soft skills programmes run in partnership with Nestle Purina. These programmes will bring together the young and the young at heart. I will actively participate and trust that colleagues will respond positively to these events. SAVA is not out of the woods yet financially, and this has led us to curtail travel to the various group and branch events. I will, as far as possible, attend those that finances permit or ask a board member in the area to represent the president. Where I am unable to reach, know that I am with you in spirit. Colleagues, we are experiencing several challenges both as a sector and individually currently. Let us remain steadfast in our collective efforts to support each other and protect animal health, safeguard livelihoods, and uphold the veterinary profession’s central role in the public good. Whatever role you play, whether through strengthening biosecurity, addressing AMR, or enabling inclusive policy dialogue, your continued contribution is vital to our success. Thank you. Chat next month again. v Ziyanda! From the President Dear members, Past the Halfway Mark
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Vetnews | Julie 2025 4 « BACK TO CONTENTS June is a month that I will remember for the rest of my life. Paul and I had the opportunity to spend 13 days in Angola on an Overlanding, Wild camping trip. We left home on the first of June and set foot back home just as the halftime whistle blew in the Boks against the Barbarians on Emirates DHL Park. What hit me the hardest in Namibia was how clean the place was and how safe. We ended up one night (illegally) camping in Owamboland next to an oshona, the people were curious but very polite and friendly. Angola is very poor, with little kids begging everywhere, especially near tourist sites. The only animals we were were Dogs, cattle, pigs and goats, apart from monkeys, cane rats, and dik-dikkies offered as bushmeat. Sad indeed. Often, I wished there was something I could do for the domestic animals, especially the dogs. But then I read about dogs in my neighbouring Acornhoek that do not receive any dog food. I have ‘adopted’ an in situ dog close to the creche I support. Currently it is Siga nr 2. The previous one met with traffic on the Orpen road before I could have him neutered. With Nr 2, we made sure it was done timeously. He has settled down so well with the very elderly couple. He gets his vaccinations and deworming on a regular basis. What he also gets is dog food. I do not supply the top of the range, I supply good, balanced food. I believe that education and being an example go a long way to better the lives of the people. Being out of the country with very limited connection to the ‘real’ world gave us a chance to switch off and unwind. But it also removed us a little from reality, which in itself is not a bad thing. I can recommend this kind of thing to happen to anybody. Sleeping out in the wild may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but find your breakaway. Many things seem to sort themselves out without your input and influence. My wish is that you stay warm and maybe make life a little warmer for another person or an animal. It is, after all, Christmas in July. v Regards, Andriette From the Editor Editor’s notes / Redakteurs notas Contrary to popular belief, the world does not end when you are not in the loop. 24-Hour Toll-Free Helpline: 0800 212121
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Vetnews | Julie 2025 6 « BACK TO CONTENTS
Vetnuus | July 2025 7 STUDY VETERINARY MEDICINE IN CYPRUS DOCTOR OF VETERINARY MEDICINE (DVM) 5-Year Programme for High School Leavers unic.ac.cy/vet EARLY CLINICAL EXPOSURE AND TRAINING in small groups with both large and small animals from year one. CURRICULUM ALIGNED WITH RCVS, AVMA, EAEVE, AND WORLD ORGANIZATION FOR ANIMAL HEALTH INNOVATIVE, HANDS-ON CURRICULUM designed to offer you the necessary Day One skills required to follow any career pathway in veterinary medicine. COMMUNITY SERVICE AND ANIMAL WELFARE volunteerism and service opportunities with sheltered animals. TALENTED AND DEDICATED FACULTY MEMBERS AND STAFF facilitating and guiding your learning and development as a veterinarian. FINANCIAL AID SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE We, the members of the Association, resolve at all times: • To honour our profession and the Veterinary Oath • To maintain and uphold high professional and scientific standards • To use our professional knowledge, skills and resources to protect and promote the health and welfare of animals and humans • To further the status and image of the veterinarian and to foster and enrich veterinary science • To promote the interests of our Association and fellowship amongst its members. Ons, die lede van die Vereniging, onderneem om te alle tye: • Ons professie in ere te hou en die Eed na te kom • ‘n Hoë professionele en wetenskaplike peil te handhaaf en te onderhou • Ons professionele kennis, vaardigheid en hulpbronne aan te wend ter beskerming en bevordering van die gesondheid en welsyn van dier en mens • Die status en beeld van die veearts te bevorder en die veeartsenykunde te verryk • Die belange van ons Vereniging en die genootskap tussen sy lede te bevorder. CREDO
Vetnews | Julie 2025 8 « BACK TO CONTENTS Climate change as a wildlife health threat: a scoping review Sabrina S. Greening1*, Lucie R. Pascarosa2, Avery L. Munster2, Roderick B. Gagne1 and Julie C. Ellis1 Background Protecting and promoting wildlife health in the face of climate change is complex. Despite decades of climate research, there remains uncertainty surrounding the magnitude and scope of impacts climate change is having on many wildlife species [31]. Furthermore, climate change is exacerbating other concurrent anthropogenic threats to wildlife, such as habitat loss and land use change, compounding the threats faced by wildlife and the ecosystems they live in. An increased understanding of the climateassociated impacts on wildlife at multiple taxonomic, temporal, and spatial scales is critical for adaptive management and conservation [20, 37]. However, current research often focuses exclusively on how climate change will impact the emergence and transmission dynamics of infectious diseases, in particular, vector-borne diseases [34]. This is driven largely by the traditional disease-driven view of health (i.e., health is the absence of disease), but also likely reflective of the many health initiatives that remain human-centric, defining the singular role (and value of) wildlife as sources of emerging zoonotic disease. An alternative approach is research that focuses on how climate change will impact the health of wildlife. However, despite ongoing discussions, there remains ambiguity about what wildlife health means and how this translates into actionable management goals [29]. More recent wildlife health frameworks reflect our expanding understanding and definition of health – extending beyond disease and emphasising the interaction of biological, social, and environmental determinants and their impact on health [33, 38]. While there is growing recognition that wildlife health is more than just the presence or absence of disease, integrating concepts such as adaptation and resilience into health research remains limited. For wildlife populations, managing resilience shifts the focus from population-based management towards ecosystem management, whereby strategies centre on maintaining system-level characteristics and processes [3] and strengthening the capacity of the system to respond to change through adaptation [6]. Therefore, it is important in adaptation research to have an understanding of the entire system in which the population of interest is a part [15] in order to identify practical strategies that could help reduce the anticipated negative effects of climate change [16, 17]. A recent review found that only 1% of management recommendations designed to address climate-associated impacts on wildlife populations focused on aspects of health such as reproduction, survival, or disease and few recommendations representing local-scale management interventions [23]. Similar challenges are seen across much of animal health research, for instance, a review focusing on climate change impacts in livestock systems emphasised the importance of more detailed adaptation research to inform local, national, and regional policies to support livestock keepers in adapting to climate change more effectively [12]. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC refers to climate adaptation as the “process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects, to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities” [18], while resilience is the “ability of a system and its component parts to anticipate, absorb, accommodate, or recover from the effects of a hazardous event in a timely and efficient manner” [18]. Over the past few years, there has been considerable growth in the number of wildlife management agencies that have developed and/or implemented climate adaptation plans. For example, the adaptation strategy first published in 2012 and updated in 2021 by the National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Partnership (NFWPCAP aims to provide a framework that enables decision-makers to take actionable steps towards building ecosystem resilience and maintaining ecosystem services in the Abstract Background The definition of wildlife health continues to expand with the recognition that health is more than the absence of disease. Practitioners are working to integrate concepts such as vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience into wildlife health research, surveillance, and management actions. Here, we performed a scoping review to identify scholarly articles from 2008 onwards with a focus on climate change impacts on wildlife health. Searches were conducted in Web of Science, Zoological Record, Scopus, Ovid CAB Abstracts, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Articles were screened for relevance and fed into an AI-based thematic analysis that identified recurring themes across the literature. Each theme was manually reviewed and refined to help describe the scope and depth of existing literature, identify key themes, and assess potential knowledge gaps. Results In total, 2,249 citations were retrieved of which 372 were included in further analysis after applying a set of inclusion/exclusion criteria. On closer inspection, 30.4% (113/372) of the papers were focused on climate-associated impacts on vector distribution. For this reason, two thematic analyses were performed, one which only included the subset of papers focused on climate change and vector distribution (n = 113) and another including the remaining papers focused on climate-associated impacts on wildlife health (n = 259). Amongst the subset of papers focused on vector distribution, top themes included concepts related to pathogen transmission dynamics, human/public health, and pathogen prevalence, while health papers focused on concepts related to increasing temperatures, species home ranges and distribution, and changing environmental variables. Conclusions A large number of the papers retrieved in the literature search focused on how climate change impacts the distribution and abundance of host, vector, and pathogen species, remaining disease-centric in their approach. Papers including themes related to management actions were limited reflecting some uncertainty on how best to respond and prepare for climate change. Further discussion is needed on how wildlife health concepts can be used to help inform on-the-ground management actions in the face of climate uncertainty, this includes the collection of baseline health data and research into health metrics that could be used as indicators of resilience at the ecosystem level.
Vetnuus | July 2025 9 Leading Article face of climate change [27, 28]. Such frameworks identify practical strategies that can be used to reduce the anticipated negative effects of climate change. A previous study reviewed 16 adaptation strategies developed across the United States, Canada, England, Mexico, and South Africa, related to wildlife management and biodiversity conservation [26]. The strategies could be grouped into four broad categories: land and water protection and management, direct species management, monitoring and planning, and law and policy [26]. In many cases, the health impacts of climate change are not explicitly addressed in adaptation strategies or otherwise wildlife health is still only considered through a disease-centric lens. Given the threat of climate change to wildlife health, it is important that wildlife research, surveillance, and management continue to evolve and integrate concepts such as resilience and adaptation. We hope this review will stimulate further thinking on how to add wildlife health to the climate agenda. We gathered literature focused on climate change and wildlife health and used an artificial intelligence (AI) thematic analysis to describe the scope and depth of existing literature, identify key research themes, and identify knowledge gaps. Methods A scoping review was conducted to assess the size (i.e., number of papers) and scope of research focused on climate change as a threat to wildlife health. This review does not intend to synthesize or evaluate all relevant studies, such as a systematic review, but instead aims to understand broad themes across the existing literature. The checklist provided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR; [36]) was consulted to help ensure key items from the scoping review are reported. A copy of the completed checklist is provided as an Additional File. Once citations had been identified and screened by the authors, an AI-based thematic analysis was used as a preliminary tool to identify patterns across the research that may point toward potential themes and/or knowledge gaps. Search strategy and screening The literature searches were completed over several days starting from July 15 through to July 19, 2024. The search was conducted in five databases: Web of Science, Zoological Record, Scopus, Ovid CAB Abstracts, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. All searches were limited to all types of publications dated from 2008 onwards with no language restrictions. Only the article titles, abstracts, and keywords were queried using the search terms listed in Table 1. The search terms used to capture the concept of “health” were selected from a standard lexicon of threats to biodiversity conservation presented by Salafsky et al. [32], while search terms related to the concepts of “wildlife” and “climate” were discussed and selected by authors. All citations identified using the search strategy were imported into Endnote reference management software (version 21.4 Bld 18,113) where duplicates were removed using the Endnote “Find Duplicates” tool followed by a manual check to remove any duplicates that had been missed. The title and abstracts were then divided between two reviewers (LRP and ALM) and screened using a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria to determine their eligibility for use in the thematic analysis. Citations were included if studies (1) investigated or demonstrated the potential impacts of climate change on wildlife health outcomes, either at a population or animal level. If the title and abstract alone were not adequate to determine if the study should be included, the full text was used for screening. Citations were excluded if studies (1) reported a mortality and/ or morbidity event associated with episodes of extreme weather (e.g., hurricanes, wildfires, or floods), (2) focused on the risk of zoonotic diseases to humans, (3) exclusively looked at captive animals (i.e., companion or zoo) or food production systems, (4) documenting pathogen presence/absence without assessing any impacts on wildlife health outcomes, (5) did not distinguish between climate change and other anthropogenic pressures, and (6) that discussed potential climate change impacts on their results but did not directly investigate climate change impacts. During the screening process, it became clear that a large proportion of the papers focused on ways that climate change impacts the distribution of disease vector species such as mosquitos, ticks, and flies. These papers were set aside for use in a second thematic analysis to evaluate if climate change was considered differently in papers focusing on wildlife health versus those focused on vector distribution. After the initial screening process, the remaining citations were checked by a third reviewer (SSG) to confirm the relevance of the remaining studies before accessing a PDF copy of each manuscript using EndNote’s search for full-text tool. If EndNote was unable to retrieve the PDF and a PDF copy could not be obtained using a manual online search, the study was excluded from further analysis. Once the final number of papers for inclusion had been determined, linear regression models were used to help determine if the total number of papers increased by year with all models run using R statistical software (version 4.3.2 [30],). AI‑based thematic analysis PDF copies of each paper were imported into NVivo (version 14.23.3) where auto-coding was used to identify themes across the text. For the primary analysis focused on the impacts of climate change on wildlife health, the entire text was used whilst for the secondary analysis focused on vector distribution only the abstracts were used, reducing the computational time. The NVivo autocoding feature uses a linguistic processing algorithm to generate a theme hierarchy based on reoccurring phrases in the data. To summarise, it detects themes by identifying noun phrases, grouping them under a broad parent theme, and assigning significance to themes based on how frequently each noun phrase appears [24]. Auto-coding was chosen over manual coding processes as it can provide insight across large sets of data more efficiently. >>>10 Concept Keywords Wildlife “wildlife” OR “free ranging” Health “bacter*” OR “disease*” OR “fung*” OR “hazard*” OR “health*” OR “parasit*” OR “pollut*” OR “risk” OR “toxi*” OR “viral*” OR “virus*” OR “poison*” Climate “climate change” OR “global warming” Table 1: Search terms used to conduct a review of climate change research papers focused on wildlife health and climate change. Concepts were combined using “AND” as the Boolean operator
Vetnews | Julie 2025 10 « BACK TO CONTENTS Leading Article The themes and noun phrases identified using auto-coding were reviewed manually (SSG) and refined by merging, moving, or deleting themes and noun phrases that were thought to be incorrect when interpreting them in context. Only a small proportion of the auto-coded themes and noun phrases were deleted, many of which were related to a study’s methodology for example, themes such as “Linear regression” or “Bayesian analysis” were removed. Other auto-coded themes were deleted if the theme was identified in less than 5% of the papers and could not be merged with another theme. Merging was more commonly performed on noun phrases and only occurred if two themes or noun phrases could be linked by a common idea or could be considered one and the same. For example, the noun phrases “Public health” and “Human health” were merged to form a single noun phrase. Rarely was a new parent theme created manually with the exception of the “Species” theme which has “Moose (Alces alces)” and “White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)” nested as noun phrases. It was thought important to keep these noun phrases as they were found in high frequency throughout the papers related to climate change impacts on vector distribution however, they did not fit into any existing parent theme. Noun phrases were also moved from one parent theme to another. For example, the AI auto-coding placed the noun phrase “Habitat management and protection” under the “Habitat” theme before it was manually moved under the “Management” theme. It could be argued that this noun phrase could belong to both parent themes, however, “Management” was selected based on the interpretation of the text segments that had been assigned during the autocoding process. In the end, very few edits were made to the autocoded parent themes with most of the manual corrections centred around the movement of noun phrases. Results Search Results The literature search yielded 2,249 citations (after removing duplicates) of which only 372 (16.5%; 372/2,249) met the inclusion criteria after being screened by all three reviewers. Of these 259 (69.6%; 259/372) contributed to the analysis focused on climate change and wildlife health while 113 citations (30.4%; 113/372) made up the vector distribution subset (Fig. 1). The datasets analysed during the current study are available in the Scholarly Commons: The University of Pennsylvania’s open-access institutional repository; https:// repos itory. upenn. edu/ handle/ 20. 500. 14332/ 60593. The number of citations retrieved varied across each year (Fig. 2) with results from the linear regression model suggesting that approximately 60% of the variance in the number of citations related to climate change and wildlife health could be accounted for by yearly changes (R2 = 0.637; p-value = 0.0001). In comparison, yearly changes accounted for approximately 50% of the variance in the number of citations related to climate change and vector distribution (R2 = 0.498; p-value = 0.0016). AI‑based thematic analysis—climate change and wildlife health A total of 17 parent themes and 103 noun phrases were identified across the 259 citations focused on climate change and wildlife health (Table 2 and Supplementary Table 1). The top noun phrases identified across all the papers focused on concepts related to Figure 1: Number of records yielded from the scoping review across five databases: Scopus, Web of Science, Zoological Records, ProQuest, and CAB Abstracts, and included in the thematic analyses
Vetnuus | July 2025 11 increasing temperatures (n = 152; 58.7% papers), species home ranges and distribution (n = 108; 41.7% papers), changing environmental variables (n = 86; 33.2% papers), animal body size and/or mass (n = 69; 26.6% papers), and increasing different aspects of temperature including heat stress, and water temperatures (n = 68; 26.3% papers) across only a small proportion of the papers focused on concepts related to fungal diseases (n = 5; 1.9%), critical habitats (n = 6; 2.3% papers), genetic effects/impacts (n = 6; 2.3% papers), proliferative kidney disease (n = 6; 2.3% papers), and climate policies and planning (n = 7; 2.7% papers). When combined, the theme with the fewest number of noun phrases captured concepts related to management including habitat management and protection. When com- extreme temperature events, winter temperatures, and bining noun phrases, the top theme identified looked at critical temperature thresholds. Noun phrases identified AI‑based thematic analysis—climate change and vector distribution Across the 113 papers focused on vector distribution, a total of 13 parent themes and 58 noun phrases were identified (Table 3 and Supplementary Table 2). The top noun phrases focused on concepts related to pathogen transmission dynamics (n = 46; 40.7% papers), Leading Article Figure 2: A breakdown of the number of citations by year yielded from a scoping review looking at wildlife health and climate change (n = 259) and vector distribution and climate change (n = 113) Parent theme No. of noun phrases in the parent theme Top noun phrase in the parent theme No. of papers with parent theme included (%) Temperature 5 Increasing temperatures 175 (67.6) Species 8 Amphibian and reptile species 173 (66.8) Habitat 15 Habitat suitability 147 (56.8) Population 8 Population response and trends 132 (51.0) Variables 4 Changing environmental variables 128 (49.4) Response 6 Physiological stress response 123 (47.5) Distribution 3 Species home ranges and distribution 114 (44.0) Body 3 Body condition 111 (42.9) Disease 12 Infectious diseases 103 (39.8) Survival 5 Reproductive success and survival 99 (38.2) Water 3 Increasing water temperatures 91 (35.1) Host 6 Host immunology 86 (33.2) Effects 8 Direct effects 85 (32.8) Level 6 Sea level 82 (31.7) Human 3 Anthropogenic climate change 54 (20.8) Parasite 5 Parasite prevalence 53 (20.7) Management 3 Habitat management and protection 52 (20.1) Table 2: A breakdown of the parent themes (n = 17) identified using AI-based thematic analysis including 259 papers related to climate change impacts on wildlife health. A full list of the noun phrases within each theme is presented in the Supplementary Material « >>>12
Vetnews | Julie 2025 12 « BACK TO CONTENTS human/ public health (n = 46; 40.7% papers), pathogen prevalence (n = 32; 28.3% papers), Ixodes spp. (n = 27; 23.9% papers), and tickborne pathogens (n = 27; 23.9% papers). The top theme identified when considering the combined frequency of noun phrases captured within each theme included aspects related to pathogens including the identification of many pathogen species, namely Yersinia pestis, Babesia spp., Borrelia spp., and Rickettsia spp. Noun phrases identified across only a small proportion of the vector distribution papers focused on concepts related to vector abundances (n = 2; 1.8%), vector biology and/ or ecology (n = 2; 1.8%), vector competence (n = 3; 2.7%), host immune competence (n = 4; 3.5%), and Rhipicephalus spp. (n = 4; 3.5%). Discussion This scoping review provides insight into how climate change is being integrated into the wildlife health literature. In total, 2,249 citations were retrieved from the literature search and after applying a set of inclusion/ exclusion criteria, a total of 372 papers were used in one of two thematic analyses. In many of the papers excluded from the analysis, climate change was not considered the focus of the paper but rather added as a discussion point that reflects on how research findings might be impacted by climate change. Across the papers included in further analysis, it became clear that over one-third of papers were related to the distribution of different vector species including mosquitoes, ticks, and flies. For this reason, two thematic analyses were performed. Vectorborne diseases are expected to increase with climateassociated changes in vector density, activity periods, life cycles, and geographical distribution. The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) has highlighted this growing concern in its latest “Animal Health Situation Worldwide” report [4]. However, similar to the dominant “public health” theme found across the papers focused on climate change and vector distribution in this study, much of the concerns related to vectors remain on impacts to human and livestock diseases with the importance of wildlife species limited to their role as reservoir hosts. Many of the papers also assume that the impact of climate change on vector distribution will result in a universal increase in infectious disease although in many cases this is likely an oversimplification. The disease process relies on many interacting factors between the host, the pathogen and/or vector, and their environment all of which will be impacted by climate change in different ways, leading to declines or shifts in disease just as often as increases [22, 35]. Several themes not related to disease emerged across the papers focused on wildlife health and climate change including “temperature” as the top theme. This is a good indication that many of the papers focus on more than just infectious diseases and are looking at other health impacts such as heat or thermal stress although a more in-depth breakdown of the themes is needed to see if this theme recently emerged or can be found across all the study years. It is also important to note that climate change is not limited to increases in temperature alone. Other stressors such as changing precipitation patterns will also impact health and disease, and these stressors have not been captured in any of the themes [13]. The focus on temperature could reflect the uncertainty inherent in future climate predictions. These uncertainties add to the challenge of managing for climate change and emphasise the importance of spreading the risk by using a diversity of management strategies and having a means by which the impact, or any potential unintended consequences, of each strategy can be evaluated both in the short- and long-term [3, 10]. Parent theme No. of noun phrases in the parent theme Top noun phrase in the parent theme No. of papers with parent theme included (%) Pathogens 9 Pathogen transmission dynamics 85 (75.2) Host 8 Host population density 56 (49.6) Ticks 9 Ixodes spp. 54 (47.8) Human 2 Human/public health 51 (45.1) Disease 3 Zoonotic diseases 42 (37.2) Health 6 Wildlife health 41 (36.3) Control 4 Surveillance systems 36 (31.9) Wildlife 3 Wildlife habitats 28 (24.8) Factors 3 Environmental factors 27 (23.9) Virus 4 Tick-borne encephalitis virus 26 (23.0) Range 2 Range expansion or shifts 26 (23.0) Species 2 Moose (Alces alces) 15 (13.3) Vector 3 Vector biology and ecology 7 (6.2) Table 3: A breakdown of the parent themes (n = 13) identified using AI-based thematic analysis including 113 papers related to climate change impacts on vector distribution. A full list of the noun phrases within each theme is presented in the Supplementary Material Leading Article
Vetnuus | July 2025 13 The top theme across the papers focused on the effects of vector distribution and climate change focuses on different aspects related to the “pathogen” including pathogen prevalence. This may reflect the importance of disease and/or pathogen surveillance systems in wildlife health. Documenting the presence or absence of pathogens has always been central to surveillance, however, there is growing recognition that surveillance systems must move beyond simply “putting points on a map” or “doing surveillance for surveillance sake” and instead be used to help generate information that can support evidence-based recommendations for the protection and promotion of healthy wildlife populations [5, 8]. For example, the collection of long-term baseline health data including information on pathogen occurrence is rarely prioritised, making it difficult to track trends over time, disentangle climate-associated impacts, and draw evidence-based conclusions. Wildlife exists in complex systems and how health is quantified or assessed can vary depending on the definition of health being used and at what scale you are looking at. This variation in scale is captured in the theme focused on “levels” with some papers looking at an individual or species level versus others that look at a population or community level. Quantifying health at different scales plays a huge role in determining how health is measured and moving beyond a focus on disease processes. For example, health metrics such as blood chemistry are focused on an individual animal while at a species level metrics such as population counts or species interactions are more important [2, 21]. Several individualbased health metrics were identified as themes including body condition, body size or mass, physiological stress responses, and host behavioural responses, while it is not clear what other metrics were used to study health impacts across the different levels. Identifying wildlife health metrics, across different levels, allows actionable health frameworks that can scale from the animal (e.g., targeted antibiotic use) to the ecosystem (e.g., providing corridors of connectivity between optimal habitats). These approaches can move us beyond the detection of pathogens and their pathology towards healthy wildlife [1]. Understanding health effects at different levels can help identify relevant health metrics and targets, which is critical to guide potential management actions that may be used to reach those targets [14]. In a review of 261 studies looking at health assessments for population monitoring in noncaptive vertebrate species, the most common metrics used included taxa blood analysis, body composition assessments, physical examination, and faecal analyses however, only a limited number of papers discussed how these metrics could be used to inform decisionmaking processes without further integrating a physiological or ecological understanding of species resilience [21]. In addition, these metrics are all focused on the individual level whereas wildlife management often occurs at the population level or above, with a recent shift to adaptive management approaches at the ecosystem level as a way of managing for resilience. Taking an ecological perspective on management is a more holistic approach compared to using single species to guide decision-making as it considers the problem in context including both important ecological interactions and interactions at the human-wildlife interface (Mascia et al., [25]. It is also necessary to explain in more details the inclusion (eligibility) criteria and reason why large proportion of the articles were excluded from the study. Consequently, please address potential concerns that may arise from th2003). Additional themes, concerned with indirect effects, long-term effects, cascading effects, or sublethal effects, further highlight some of the challenges in defining and measuring wildlife health and the potential additive effects of climate change on health which are often not considered in health frameworks. When examining the themes identified in this study, it is important to consider the limitations both in the search strategy and AIbased thematic analysis. A variety of keywords were used to capture the central concepts: wildlife, health, and climate change. However, with any search strategy, it is hard to assess the scope and magnitude of papers that have been missed or the biases introduced by the keywords. This may be of particular importance when considering the expanding definition of wildlife health and how defining health is complicated by the different terminology used across disciplines. For example, an ecologist may be more likely to use terms such as “fitness” instead of “health.” Nevertheless, it is important to note that out of the 2,249 records that resulted from the literature search, only 16.5% (372/2,249) remained after applying the eligibility criteria suggesting that the search terms could have been further assessed to help narrow the search and reduce the number of papers that were outside the scope of this review. A large proportion of the papers were removed during the inclusion/exclusion process because they discussed how climate change would potentially impact their findings, particularly concerning the prevalence of pathogens and/or diseases, but did not directly investigate climate change impacts on wildlife health outcomes. These papers highlight the difficulty in assessing the impact of climate change without a large amount of retrospective or baseline data for both health and climate. The eligibility criteria may have also resulted in papers being excluded from the thematic analysis inappropriately, however, having such criteria is important to help standardise the inclusion/exclusion process between reviewers. It is also important to acknowledge that by using an AI tool for autocoding themes, there is a risk of misclassification as the algorithm is based on pattern recognition and lacks human insight or context. In this study, many of the auto-coded noun phrases were either moved into different themes or broken down/split to create a new noun phrase. For example, the noun phrase “body temperature” was initially included under the theme “temperature” but was combined with the noun phrases “body size/mass” and “body condition” to create a new parent theme with the understanding that they are all related to physiological measurements. This highlights the importance of manually reviewing the themes. Nevertheless, the use of AI auto-coding followed by a manual review still takes considerably less time than manually coding the themes and showcases how AI tools can facilitate the initial stages of qualitative data analysis, especially in cases where there is a large amount of data. An important next step in this analysis would be to build a thematic map or network to start exploring the relationships between codes and themes [7]. For instance, in this analysis, moose (Alces alces) were one of only two wildlife species identified in a theme; however, on further exploration, you can see that all the papers identified under the theme “moose” are also captured under the themes related to “increasing temperatures” and “Dermacentor tick species”. This is unsurprising given the evidence for increasing winter tick (Dermacentor albipictus) burdens due to increasing temperatures and its impact on calve survival [9, 19] and adult cow reproduction rates [11]. A thematic map would also help reflect the complexity of wildlife health and further highlight potential knowledge gaps. For example, “increasing temperatures” was the >>>14 Leading Article
Vetnews | Julie 2025 14 « BACK TO CONTENTS top noun phrase but it remains unclear if these papers assessed the impact of increasing temperature on disease agents or direct effects on the wildlife host. Overall, this review highlights how much of the climate and health research has focused on investigating changes in the geographical or altitudinal distribution of pathogens, parasites, and vectors. The importance of this research cannot be understated however, more needs to be done to link these changes to wildlife health outcomes. To do this, a crucial next step would be to identify relevant health metrics and targets that could be used to assess health across different levels of an ecosystem. Furthermore, our ability to untangle the impacts of climate change amid other anthropogenic threats that are acting synergistically is difficult without long-term baseline health data and robust climate predictions. Conclusion As the term “wildlife health” continues to evolve, it is important to discuss the various factors that contribute to wildlife health, particularly as climate change presents a threat with considerable uncertainty. The thematic analysis presented in this study reveals what central ideas are driving wildlife health research and where the potential gaps may lie. The findings show that wildlife health is complex and operates at many different levels. This complexity has been captured in many of the recent definitions; however, health metrics that can be used to help inform on-the-ground management actions or build resilience are still missing and instead the focus has been on how climate change may impact species distribution. It is clear that successful wildlife management needs to incorporate climate change into the response to other health threats and to implement strategies that mitigate impacts related to climate change. Doing so requires research to determine how wildlife can withstand climate driven threats and how management of wildlife can help achieve healthy and resilient populations. v Abbreviations PRISMA-ScR Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and MetaAnalyses extension for Scoping Reviews AI Artificial Intelligence IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change NFWPCAP National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Partnership Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https:// doi. org/ 10. 1186/ s12917- 025- 04516-2. Additional file 1. PRISMA_ScR_Checklist.pdf. A completed checklist provided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR; Tricco et al., 2018) showing what key items from the scoping review are reported. Additional file 2. 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