Implications for One Health of Anthelmintic Use in Wildlife Conservation Programs

Excerpt

Anthelmintics may be used to treat wildlife species for helminth parasites during rehabilitation and translocation efforts that contribute to the conservation of threatened populations (Northover et al. 2018). Individuals may be treated indiscriminately with broad-spectrum anthelmintics that can eliminate multiple helminth taxa. This is typically done based on the assumption that anthelmintic treatment will reduce the fitness costs incurred by parasitism, thereby increasing the likelihood of conservation success (Northover et al. 2018). However, routine use of anthelmintics in wildlife has increasingly become more controversial because of its disregard for the health-benefitting, but also intrinsic values of helminth taxa (Spencer and Zuk 2016). Although anthelmintics can indeed reduce the parasite burden of a host, there is inconsistent, albeit limited, evidence about whether treatment leads to improved host health and greater conservation success for populations (Pedersen and Fenton 2015; Northover et al. 2018). Therefore, careful consideration of whether anthelmintics are warranted, and if so, thoughtful evaluation of the type of medication to be used, is recommended prior to treatment (Stringer and Linklater 2014; Northover et al. 2018). Still, the question of whether to treat or not can be very challenging to answer as it will be governed by host-helminth ecology and conservation-specific goals. …