Meeting Abstract
Wildlife conservation, including the conservation of large carnivores, is increasingly a disease-mediated task as disease emergence, population fragmentation, and restriction of wildlife to reduced and degraded habitat may potentiate disease impacts in already vulnerable populations. However, while this phenomenon is now widely recognized by wildlife management officials, coinfecting pathogens may confound sound disease management strategy. Coinfections, through various mechanisms, may lower the threshold for pathogen invasion, increase the likelihood of pathogen maintenance, or alter the coevolution of pathogens within and between their host, thus contributing to unforeseen consequences for host and population health. This presentation examines the role of one such pathogen, Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), in structuring pathogen and parasite communities within African lions (Panthera leo) living in Kruger National Park, South Africa. As an immunosuppressive lentivirus of domestic and wild felids, FIV may impose subtle, but significant costs on the host population by facilitating the transmission and maintenance of native and non-native pathogens. Therefore, this presentation will investigate the impacts of FIV for other pathogens within the system, as well as the epidemiology of and associations between other significant pathogens and parasites.
