Even with forewarning, challenges remain in developing a proactive response to emerging infectious diseases

Abstract/Summary

Despite calls for improving responses to emerging infectious diseases of wildlife, management is seldom considered until a disease has been detected in affected populations. Reactive approaches may limit the potential for control and increase total response costs. An alternative, proactive, management framework can identify immediate actions that reduce future impacts even before a disease is detected, as well as prepare actions conditional on disease emergence. We identify four main challenges to developing proactive management strategies for the newly discovered salamander pathogen, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal). Given that deep uncertainty is a hallmark of wildlife disease management and decisions are often complicated by multiple competing objectives, we advocate using decision analysis to create and evaluate trade-offs among proactive (pre-emergence) and reactive (post-emergence) management. Using principles from decision analysis, natural resources agencies and policy-makers can utilize a variety of tools to improve the development of management strategies for emerging infectious diseases.